


you and i are the same

by rundownes



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Drama, Bodyguard, Bodyswap, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Baggage, F/F, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Volume 3 (RWBY), Weiss Schnee-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 80,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27075805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rundownes/pseuds/rundownes
Summary: After the Fall of Beacon, Weiss wakes up in a world where she’s the head of the Schnee Dust Company. This wouldn’t be so bad, except everyone seems to think she’s corrupt and evil.Meanwhile, the other Weiss occupies the original Weiss's body, busy trying to learn how to regrow her nonexistent heart. Will she ever see the error of her ways? The answer: probably not.
Relationships: Ilia Amitola/Weiss Schnee, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 139
Kudos: 237





	1. Chapter 1

Weiss woke up cold. She was in a room with white walls, hooked up to some kind monitoring machine that let out rhythmic beeps every few seconds. Someone had left the windows open and a breeze drifted in, tickling the hairs at the back of her neck.

She noticed a man sitting in the chair beside her bed, fingers steepled. After a brief second, she recognized the man. It was General Ironwood. 

The General raised his head, meeting Weiss’s gaze head-on, and said, “We have a lot of questions for you, Miss Schnee.”

“James,” said another man, and now Weiss looked to the side to see Professor Ozpin, standing on the linoleum tile floor and pushing up his spectacles with one hand. ”We’ve only just had her awoken. There’s no need to be so hasty.”

“Well, well, well,” said a third, scruffy-looking man from where he leant against the wall, arms crossed. “So the Ice Queen decides to grace us with her presence after all.”

Weiss heard all of the words as they were said, but she hardly registered any of them in her mind. Her gaze flitted between the three men in the room uncertainly, wondering why they were there with her in the first place. She considered where ‘there’ precisely was supposed to be. A hospital? Then, she looked down at herself. She was covered in bandages.

Weiss’s voice cracked as she tried to speak.

“What happened? Where… Where am I?”

The scruffy man immediately made a loud scoffing noise. General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin exchanged glances.

“You mean to say you don’t remember?” Professor Ozpin asked.

“I… I remember…” Weiss trailed off, hands curling up tight around the hospital sheets. She tensed. It had taken only a second, but in that second, numerous images had streaked through her head like a bolt of lightning. Penny’s death, the Grimm and White Fang invasion, the dragon, Beacon Tower crumbling, a blinding flash of light. Losing consciousness. “Oh, gods…”

Oh, gods, Weiss thought again, with a tinge of disbelief and horror. Had all of those things really happened? They had, hadn’t they? Weiss wanted to say more but was cut off by a sudden contraction in her chest which gave way to a fit of coughing. She doubled over on the bed, wheezing, fist over her mouth. Damn, why was her mouth so dry? Why did it feel like she had swallowed an entire lungful of ash, at that? Her body prickled all over from pain.

“Is— Where— How—”

She kept coughing. Without another word, Ozpin came up to the bed. He held out a glass of water which Weiss took with trembling fingers and greedily sucked down. The water soothed her throat and weakened her coughs. In her hurry, though, she had accidentally splashed some of the water onto her hospital gown. Another time and another place, Weiss might’ve been embarrassed about her lost decorum. As it stood, she couldn’t care less, and the only thing she did, after she had finished drinking, was ask for more water.

Ozpin nodded and went to the tap in the corner of the room. Weiss heard the faucet running. The scruffy man, which Weiss now recognized as Ruby’s uncle, rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on, Oz,” Qrow complained. “What is this, good cop bad cop? You don’t have to do that.”

“It’s hardly the wrong thing to do,” Ozpin responded. He came back to the bedside and handed the glass to Weiss once more, giving her a not unkind smile. Gratefully, Weiss drank.

When she was done, and she was sure the coughing fit had mostly subsided, she set the glass down and prepared to speak again. This time, however, someone beat her to the punch.

“Now then,” Ironwood said, tone of voice brusque. “I suppose we can finally get down to business.”

“...Business?” Weiss repeated. “What business? I just want to know what happened to my team. The school. How long was I unconscious?”

Ironwood frowned, shooting her a wary look. “Miss Schnee,” he said. “Let’s cut to the chase. We know what you and the SDC have been up to these past couple of months. We know about your connections with the White Fang and Cinder Fall. We know about what you had planned for the Vytal Festival.”

There was a moment of silence. 

Weiss became aware of some sort of pain, throbbing in the back of her head. She pressed her hands to the afflicted area, trying to reduce the pressure. It was acute. Certainly, Weiss felt more awake and more alert now than she had been just mere minutes ago, but at the same time, she wondered if she really was awake at all. There was a lot to unpack in the words Ironwood had just said. He had answered none of her questions, either. 

Time passed.

At length, Weiss said, “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“We have your financial records,” Ironwood said.

“Um,” Weiss said. “What financial records? What are you talking about?”

She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel. Anxious? Confused? Angry? A combination of all three? The words ‘White Fang’ and ‘Cinder Fall’ had sparked an instinctive baseline emotional response in her, that was to be certain, but not much beyond that.

“Are you pretending to be stupid on purpose,” Qrow said, “or just doped up on the pain meds?”

“Doped up— Hey, what’s your deal anyways? Why are you even here? Can one of you please explain to me what’s going on?”

Something strange was happening here, the feeling struck Weiss, something strange, something not quite right. She looked around the room again, which she confirmed was just an ordinary hospital room, except then she realized she didn’t recall ever getting badly injured in the first place. That memory was missing conspicuously from her head. Immediately, Weiss tried to get off the bed, to stand up, but her body, screaming in a sudden fit of pain, refused to cooperate.

“We already got Torchwick to confess,” Ironwood said.

“Am I dreaming?” Weiss muttered.

A second moment of silence. 

“Miss Schnee—”

“Where’s my team? How did I get hurt? What happened to Beacon?”

The beeping in the monitor machine had picked up its pace. Weiss felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth— already, she was thirsty again. Calm down, she told herself. She was sure, if this wasn’t a dream, there had to be a reasonable explanation for the situation.

“The school is fine. Your plans failed. Unfortunately, your team will be here soon enough,” Qrow said, almost monotonous, and at his response, Weiss felt a huge surge of relief, although she found herself just as confused as before. Her plans? 'Unfortunately'? Shouldn’t Qrow be happy that her team— his two nieces— were alright? She wanted to see them, Ruby, Yang, Blake...

Antagonistic. That was the word. Ironwood and Qrow— they were both so antagonistic towards her. They seemed to be under the impression that Weiss had done something wrong. Which was ridiculous, because all Weiss had done to her knowledge was defend the school and tried to save people’s lives. She had only done all the things she had been taught to do. She hadn’t done anything _wrong_.

She decided to say as much. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” Weiss said. “I don’t know why you seem to be under that impression.”

“We do have a lot of evidence,” Ozpin said, almost gently, and Weiss sucked in a breath as she realized even the Headmaster of the school was against her.

“Torchwick? The White Fang? Cinder Fall?” Weiss said. “Look, of course I know them, and sure, I dealt with them, but still that can hardly be described as having ‘connections’.”

“I don't know. You funnelled millions of Lien into their criminal enterprises,” Qrow said, dryly. "That syre sounds like 'connections' in my book."

Weiss tensed. “What? That’s absurd! I know I’m more well-off than most people, but even I don’t just have millions of Lien to throw around!” Weiss struggled not to raise her voice. “I haven’t committed any crimes!”

“How is it absurd? Because it’s a lot of money?” Qrow sneered. “Come on, Ice Queen. You’re not fooling anyone. You’re the richest person on this _planet_.”

“I’m nowhere near the richest person on—“

“You’re the head of the SDC,” Qrow cut her off. “If that doesn’t make you the richest person, I don’t know what would.”

A third silence, except for the accelerated beeping of the machine, picking up Weiss’s thumping heart. 

Weiss saying, weakly, “What?”

“Ice Queen remembers her second title now, Little Miss CEO,” Qrow said, chuckling without humor. He shifted to bring himself closer to the bed, off the wall, and now she could see the wine-red color of his eyes. “Alright, fine. Moving on. Let’s talk about the video we have of you meeting up with Cinder Fall and openly conspiring to assassinate good old James here along with your own _sister._ ”

“I… I didn’t do anything like that! I— What were you saying, about me being—“

“Yes, you did.”

“No, I—“

“Yes, you _did_ ,” Qrow said, “and not only did you do those things, but you also helped Cinder Fall rig the matches in Amity Arena by providing her secret backdoor access to the system. You supplied dust and equipment to the White Fang, knowing they were going to invade Beacon Academy. You preemptively blockaded Ironwood’s military fleet with your own private one and pretended it was what, a scheduling error? You’re lucky we were able to stop Cinder, Ice Queen. Otherwise, you would be looking at a lot longer list of charges right now. Honestly, it’s not a question of guilt at this point. We know you’re guilty. We’re not looking for a confession, but an explanation. Are you working for someone? A certain Salem, perhaps? Is Cinder Fall your partner? Or, well, are you just some rich power hungry bozo who bamboozled her way into this mess of things? Is it as simple as, _‘You’re an idiot_ ’?”

Qrow finished his long tirade by gripping the frame of Weiss’s bed tightly, no more than a few feet from her face, looking straight into Weiss’s eyes. His expression was deadly serious. There was a fourth moment of silence, and Weiss was sure she had to be dreaming now. She was sure of it, and also, she was feeling awfully close to throwing up.

“We’re not getting anywhere like this,” Ironwood finally declared. He stood up from his chair, fingers still steepled. “She must be confused because of her injuries.”

“I told you we should’ve waited,” Ozpin said with a shake of his head. He turned towards the door, his back towards Weiss. “This was… unnecessary.”

“Whatever. I say it was worth it just to see her expression,” Qrow said. He backed away from her slowly, not doing anything to hide the disgust on his face. “Goodbye and good riddance, Weiss Schnee. We’ll see you again in the courtroom.”

Weiss realized that it was the first time that one of them had said her full name. They left, and then it was just her in the hospital room, alone.

++

Weiss spent a lot of time trying to rationalize the encounter, but no matter where she put her thoughts, she simply couldn’t. Nothing Qrow had said, implied, accused of her outright, made sense. 

A few nurses and doctors dropped by to check up on her.

“You were caught in a bad accident of sorts,” the doctor said. “A Huntsman team in training found you on school grounds and brought you in. We’ve been asked to check to see if you sustained a head injury, but altogether, you seem to be doing well in your recovery.” That was all he would say of the matter, no matter how much Weiss pressed him.

After that, Weiss slept for a while. She was injured, after all, and she was in a lot of pain, and she did feel tired. When she eventually woke up, she was despondent to find herself still in the hospital room, to the realization that what had happened had not been a dream. 

The nurses gave her the news that her ‘team’ had finally arrived to see her. Any hope or relief Weiss might have built up was utterly dashed when she saw the entourage of men in suits walk through the door.

“These are unacceptable conditions,” the leading man said, looking around at the hospital room in obvious distaste. “We apologize for the delay, Miss Schnee, but we’ll get you out of here right away. What the Beacon Headmaster and General Ironwood have done, detaining you here, is absolutely unlawful.”

They were the SDC’s Vale based legal team, the man explained, who she had on retainer to deal with all her cases here. What? She had been indicted in more than one case in Vale? Well, that was to be expected as the most successful businessman in the world. People naturally liked to paint targets on her back. No, no, of course, the legal team wasn’t sleazy. Absolute professionals, the best of their field. Whether she was guilty or not, they would get her acquitted of charges. Nothing the opposing side had was concrete, anyways.

“We’ll make sure their so-called ‘evidence’ won’t stick,” the man said. “We’ll throw every rule in the book at them. Besides, you have powerful allies. A little grease will help the judge look more favorably on the situation.”

“You’re talking about bribery,” Weiss said. 

“Nothing more than what we’ve already done before,” the man smiled, probably trying to sound reassuring and failing utterly.

“I’d like to be alone for a while,” Weiss said. “I need… I need to think. Can I borrow your scroll?”

The man nodded and waved a hand at the other men. “We’ll be back shortly,” he said. The door clicked behind the group as they left.

It took some time and willpower for Weiss to get herself willing to open up the scroll. At this point, she was starting to become scared of the things she might find. The first news headline she encountered was _SDC CEO Implicated in Terrorist Plot!_ accompanied by a blown up photograph of her face in black and white. Weiss saw that it was her face, alright, the same one that looked back at her in the mirror every morning, except there was something about her eyes, the eyes of the picture, which were so, so cold. They were, she realized, all but her father’s eyes.

The caption of the photograph said that it had been taken the previous year at a news conference regarding a particular Mantle mining scandal. Weiss clicked on the link, read two sentences, then exited and squeezed her eyes shut. If it was possible for her stomach to sink lower than it had already gone, it would have.

Something else about the photograph accompanying the first headline had bothered Weiss, though, and even though she didn’t want to, hated to, already knowing what she would likely find, she opened it up again. She stared at that cold, expressionless visage of her face for a while, and suddenly realized that there was no scar.

Weiss set the scroll down. Swallowing, she reached up and touched her own face. Her fingers traced her left eyebrow first, then the eyelashes of her left eye, before sinking down to search her cheek. No scar.

Weiss turned on the camera on the scroll and flipped it so that it showed her body. On the surface, the person who was being displayed looked like it _was_ her, with the same snow white hair and ice blue eyes. But when Weiss paid closer attention, more and more discrepancies showed up. The scar on her face wasn’t the only scar that was missing. Her hands were soft and uncalloused. She was thinner than she should have been, thinner than a couple days of sitting in a hospital could explain.

“This isn’t me,” Weiss realized with a pit of dread. “This is someone else’s body.”

++

Weiss Schnee woke up cold. She was in a room with white walls, hooked up to some kind monitoring machine that let out rhythmic beeps every few seconds. Someone had left the windows open and a breeze drifted in, tickling the hairs at the back of her neck.

She noticed a woman sitting in the chair beside her bed, fingers steepled. After a brief second, she recognized the woman. It was her sister, Winter.

Weiss groaned, letting her head fall back onto the pillow. Immediately, she wished she was still unconscious. “What are _you_ doing here?”

A flicker of surprise crossed Winter’s face. “I was... worried about you,” Winter said. “I’m afraid you’ve been hurt.”

“Yeah, well, I can see that I’m in a hospital,” Weiss muttered. She rolled her eyes. “Way to state the obvious.”

“...Excuse me?”

Her sister said something else, but Weiss ignored her, busy examining the ceiling. It took a while, but her memories eventually returned to her. She groaned again.

Fuck.

Cinder.

That bitch had caught on to Weiss’s scheme to throw her under the bus and had tried to throw Weiss under the bus first. If Cinder had actually done what she said she would do, which Weiss could entirely believe she had, then all sorts of deliciously incriminating documents were probably floating out there on the web right now, completely in the open. Even ignoring the fact that Cinder had almost burnt her to a crisp and Weiss had barely escaped with her life, Weiss was totally, totally screwed. Her one consolation was that Cinder was probably equally as screwed, too.

“How much do you know?” Weiss asked, idly. “Are you going to interrogate me or give me the disappointed big sister speech? Are you going to have me arrested? Well, let me just say, I’m not going to apologize for any of it.”

“Weiss…” Winter began, slowly, deliberately. “I’m confused. What would you have to apologize for?”

“Are you serious? So you don’t know? I mean, for instance—“ Then Weiss broke off, reconsidering.

Hm.

Something wasn’t quite right here.

Weiss hadn’t seen Winter in close to one year, not since the ceremony when she had officially stepped up to take control of the SDC. If Weiss recalled correctly, that had ended with a huge screaming match and the two sisters all but officially severing their ties. When Weiss put even the slightest ounce of thought into it, it made no sense that Winter would be here, in her hospital room, pretending to be all concerned for her well-being. Maybe Cinder hadn’t released all those documents after all? Maybe they only _suspected_ she had done something, but couldn’t be absolutely sure? Still, if this was a tactic to get her to confess to her crimes, it was a pretty weird tactic. Even if it had almost just worked.

Weiss sat up again. She gave Winter a curious look. “Say, can you tell me why you’re in Vale, anyways?” Weiss asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Ironwood’s fleet in Atlas?” Actually, Weiss knew for a fact that Winter was supposed to still be in Atlas. Weiss had made sure that the blockade she had constructed before arriving in Vale would delay as many ships as possible from leaving, including Winter’s.

Winter stared at her for a second longer, then stood up. “...I’m going to go talk to the doctors,” she said, without preamble. Then she left.

Weiss, after a second, laughed. Then she stopped laughing. She was trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for what was going on. To be fair, this was an unexpected and not entirely unwelcome turn of events. There were many worse things that could have happened to her. 

Winter came back with the doctors, and they ran her through a gamut of tests, and concluded she was probably concussed. That was good and all, Weiss thought, but she also knew that concussions didn’t alter memories. That was far outside the realm of possibilities for concussions.

“I recommend a couple more days of bed rest,” the doctor said.

“Just a couple of days?” Weiss said.

“You’re mostly suffering from Aura fatigue and exhaustion,” the doctor explained. “We’ve given you boosters which should kick in soon enough. After that, you’ll be good as new, Miss Schnee.”

Weiss almost asked, but why would you need to give me Aura boosters? I don’t have Aura? But the same feeling of strangeness which had made her cut herself off earlier when talking to Winter made her stop again. A concussion and Aura fatigue and exhaustion, she repeated in her head. No burns. 

When the doctor left, she and Winter sat in prolonged silence for several minutes. Winter seemed to be expecting her to speak, to ask questions, but Weiss was too busy being lost in her thoughts. “...I’ll come back later,” Winter eventually said, seeming uncomfortable. “I apologize, but I have a meeting with the General I need to attend to.” And so Weiss watched her should have been estranged sister stand up and go.

After Weiss was sure she was completely alone, the first thing she did was examine her body in detail. What she found was a conspicuous lack of bandages. She was also in far less physical pain than she thought she should’ve been in. For instance, she got bigger headaches pouring over the SDC’s quarterly reports than the headache she had right now, when she was supposedly concussed.

Weiss also found that she was, well, for lack of a better word, _buff._

That was weird.

What? Had they been… drip feeding her steroids while she had been conked out?

“Gods,” Weiss said, flexing an arm and watching the muscle bunch up in fascination. “This is ridiculous. I could probably bench press a table.” She lifted her shirt and felt her abs. She was surprised she had abs at all. “Maybe I’m in a fucked up morphine dream?”

Weiss checked the monitoring machine beside the bed then snorted. The heartbeat registered on the monitor was absurdly low, pro-athlete levels. A thought came to her, and she closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Then she opened them.

No Semblance.

Well, whatever. That was to be expected. The dream would have been too good if she could use her Semblance. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain this was probably just a dream. It was a good explanation for why things seemed so _peaceful_.

Though the doctors had ordered bed rest, Weiss didn’t really particularly feel like she needed it. Actually, she felt pretty great. Just a tiny headache, and plenty of energy, like she could run for miles.

Well, if this really was a dream, that meant there were no consequences, right? So shouldn’t Weiss try to enjoy herself before she woke up to the real, disappointing world?

With a smile, Weiss ripped the electrodes off her body and climbed out of the bed.

++

As soon as she left the hospital room, Weiss realized she would need to don some kind of disguise. Otherwise, she would get caught right away, seeing as she wasn’t exactly inconspicuous in her hospital gown. There wasn’t much she could do for her white hair, but she could try to get new clothes. So, she would get new clothes.

Weiss double checked that the hallway was empty then made a beeline for the door down the hall from hers. The placard on the door down the hall said that it was the room to one Yang Xiao Long. The name was vaguely familiar to Weiss, but she couldn’t exactly place where she had seen or heard it before.

Weiss stood on her toes and peeked through the little viewing glass. A blonde girl appeared fast asleep on the bed, face turned toward the window. No one else was in there with the blonde girl in the moment, and neatly folded on a chair besides the blonde girl was what appeared to be a jacket and trousers.

Perfect.

Weiss opened the door and closed it behind her as quietly as she could. Then, she tiptoed towards the chair and the clothes.

“...What are you doing here, Weiss?”

Midstep, Weiss froze.

The blonde girl had sat up in the bed and was now staring at her with tired, lilac eyes.

“Weiss?” the blonde girl repeated. “I said, what are you doing here?”

Weiss suddenly remembered where she had heard Yang Xiao Long’s name before. Cinder had talked about this girl when the two of them had been discussing the match rigging of the Vytal Tournament. And subsequently, as a result of Cinder’s meddling, Yang Xiao Long had made international news for assaulting another student.

Realizing she would need to give an answer, Weiss unfroze her steps. She reached the chair and picked up the clothes, frowning a little when she realized they were way too oversized for her, regardless of the fact that she was now buff. 

“What do you think I’m doing here?” Weiss said. “This is a hospital. I’m dressed like this. You can put two and two together.”

“I meant in my room,” Yang said, flatly. “What are you doing in my room?”

“Well, I saw you had clothes, and I need clothes. So I’m here to borrow them.”

With that explained, Weiss put on the jacket and the trousers and flattened out the creases. She thought about nicking the boots in the corner of the room, too, but that would have probably been excessive. She would make do with hospital slippers. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss could see Yang, frowning at her deeply. Then, she noticed something else as well. She did a double take.

“Wait a second,” Weiss said. “You’re missing an arm.” 

“...Yes,” Yang Xiao Long said, after a momentous delay. 

“How did you lose your arm?” Weiss asked. “I mean, last I checked, you had just broken that guy’s leg, and you still had both of your arms then.”

“Are you messing with me right now, Weiss?” Yang growled. She sounded angry. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Weiss blinked, then realized she had probably said something insensitive. The fact that Yang Xiao Long kept calling her by her first name like they were familiar with each other also intrigued her. This dream, she thought, just kept getting weirder and weirder.

“I was just curious,” Weiss shrugged. “No need to raise your voice. I’m sorry for your loss, though.”

With all that said and done, Weiss left the room. On her way through the hallway once more, she passed by a room with the placard 'Ruby Rose' fixed to the door, though Weiss didn't pay it much special attention. Sticking to the walls, careful to avoid making eye contact with any of the personnel passing her by, Weiss reached the elevators. Soon, she was moving through the lobby, walking out the front of the hospital. Once outside, she inhaled deeply. The cool, fresh air felt nice on her face.

There was a park nearby the hospital and inside the park was a large water fountain. In the park, Weiss settled herself onto a stone bench, marvelling at how good it felt to be alive like this, wondering at when was the last time she felt glad to be alive at all. For a while she sat there simply basking in the blue sky and the sunshine, relaxing. Then, seeming to hear a faint noise coming from the fountain, Weiss leaned over the edge to look at her reflection. What she saw was a girl with snow white hair, ice blue eyes, and a peculiar scar running down her left eye. 

So, this was her face in the dream then? Interesting. Weiss reached up toward her face and touched the scar— truthfully, she thought that it made her look rather badass.

Then, her reflection abruptly morphed into a more familiar face, one she could recognize anywhere: her original one. Scowling, her reflection spoke. “ _You.”_


	2. Chapter 2

The lawyers were sleazy and Weiss didn’t trust them as far as she could throw them but she had to admit they were good at their jobs and had gotten her moved to a private wing in the hospital before the day was over. There was a private bathroom attached to her new room as well, which Weiss appreciated, and as Weiss stood in front of the full-length mirror, studying her new body, she contemplated the information she had acquired from the Scroll after searching up the other Weiss Schnee.

There were a couple of things about the other Weiss Schnee that were familiar to the real Weiss. They were both the same age, eighteen. They were both singers and had put out some songs, a few of which were actually identical. They both had two siblings, Winter and Whitley. But that was about where the similarities ended. To start, other Weiss was not a Huntress in training and had never acquired any sort of formalized combat instruction. Instead, other Weiss was a business prodigy who had attended university in Atlas and attained dual degrees in economics and law at the age of sixteen. After graduating from university, other Weiss had joined the SDC’s board of directors and quickly rose through the ranks in terms of influence and prestige. By seventeen, at the time real Weiss was enrolling in Beacon, other Weiss had taken over the company altogether.

As for how other Weiss had accomplished this last momentous feat, well, there was an explanation which real Weiss found frankly unbelievable. Apparently, in this world, Jacques Schnee had fallen mysteriously ill around a year ago and had been incapacitated ever since. Technically, other Weiss was only supposed to manage the company until her father recovered, but most people agreed that given her father was in a vegetative _coma_ (?!), it was unlikely Jacques Schnee would ever recover at all, leaving other Weiss to be permanently in charge of the SDC and its assets. Actually, there was a lot of not so private speculation circulating the web that other Weiss had straight up hired some goons to poison her father in order to get him out of the picture so she could become CEO. According to what people said about other Weiss’s personality and the immensely negative reputation she had cultivated in the time she had spent as the head of the Dust company, this would not have been out of character for other Weiss at all. 

To be even more specific, Weiss had discovered that other Weiss was apparently the kind of person who ate puppies and kittens for breakfast. It was well-documented by her business partners and employees that she was a massive asshole with an equally massive ego, and people were sick of her shit. Everywhere Weiss looked online, Weiss saw other Weiss being flamed for her involvement in an innumerable number of scandals. For many, this latest terrorist plot with trying to blow up Beacon Academy was only the last straw. 

And there, however, exactly there, laid one of the few good things real Weiss thought might’ve come out of this whole experience so far, that good thing being her newfound knowledge that Beacon Academy was still standing and not blown up. In this world, Beacon had not been invaded by Grimm and the White Fang. There was no giant dragon fixed to the top of Beacon Tower. Penny was still alive. Pyrrha was fine. Yang had both her arms and had been cleared of all wrongdoing for her fight against Mercury following the the reveal that the match had been tampered with. The CCT Towers were completely functional. The Vytal Festival had gone on swimmingly and was actually still going on swimmingly right at the moment with the finals just around the corner. Cinder Fall and her compatriots, revealed to be the criminal masterminds, were gone, mysteriously vanished. The evil plots had been discovered and foiled by the appropriate authorities.

If it weren’t for the fact that other Weiss seemed completely corrupt and completely screwed up in this world, Weiss would have almost thought that this was the good timeline. As it were, though, instead of celebrating the fact that all her friends were alive and uninjured, Weiss had to contend with the possibility that she was very likely very probably going to prison for things she herself hadn’t done.

Besides her looming prison sentence, Weiss had still more things to worry about. For instance, how she had ended up in this world, in other Weiss’s body. How she was supposed to get back to her world and her real body. How she could get anybody to even believe her when she told them she was not other Weiss but a Weiss from a different world and in the wrong body. Once Weiss had calmed down enough earlier to accept her situation as it were, Weiss had started to brainstorm ways to fix the situation. So far, she had come up with absolutely nothing.

Briefly, Weiss also wondered why things had turned out so much better for Vale and Beacon in this world than her world. She couldn’t figure the specifics of it out either, but she thought for the time being, she shouldn’t look this particular gift horse in its mouth. It was at that moment that Weiss noticed that her reflection in the mirror had changed. One second, she had been staring at the reflection of a stick-thin girl in a hospital gown covered head to toe in bandages. Now, she was staring at the image of a somewhat less thin girl dressed in an oversized jacket and trousers.

Weiss noted that this particular girl had snow white hair, ice blue eyes, and a distinct scar bisecting her left eye. After taking a moment to be confused by the jacket and trousers, Weiss realized it was her original body.

“Hey!” Weiss said. “Hey, you!”

The girl in the mirror’s position was faced slightly away from Weiss as opposed to directly towards Weiss, and the girl appeared to be sitting on a bench somewhere outside. The girl was humming, seeming like she had absolutely no cares in the world, posture totally and completely relaxed. At once, Weiss was overwhelmed by an all-consuming anger of the sort she rarely ever felt. This girl, the other Weiss, presumably, was so totally kicking back and enjoying what should have been Weiss’s unfucked life, all while Weiss was stuck here in the hospital, eating the bitter fruits of other Weiss's shitty labor.

“Hey!” Weiss said, again. “Can you hear me? Come on!”

She put her hands on the mirror and hit it several times to try to get the girl’s attention. At first, the girl appeared to remain oblivious. After a moment or so of Weiss continuing to shout and hit the mirror, however, the girl finally looked down. After another moment, she seemed to finally realize that Weiss was there. 

They made eye contact. One Weiss to another.

“ _You_ ,” Weiss growled.

“Oh,” the girl said and blinked. “Hello.”

There were so many words Weiss could have spat out right then and there, some much ruder than others. By a great feat of willpower however, Weiss was able to restrain herself to words merely echoing Ironwood’s earlier sentiments.

Weiss said, “I have a lot of questions for you.” 

“Sure, alright, ask away,” the girl said, smiling. “You know, this dream just keeps getting better and better.”

First question, supplied for her. “You think this is a dream?” Weiss demanded. 

“Well, yes. I don’t know what else it could be.”

“I wish this was just a dream! Did you steal my body?”

“Ooookay,” the girl said, stretching out the ‘O’ and leaning back from Weiss’s suddenly raised voice. “Let me back up here for a second. So you mean to say that this isn’t a dream? I’m not dreaming?”

“This whole time while you’ve been relaxing without a care in the world, I’ve been stuck here in _your_ world, in _your_ body, dealing with people who want to interrogate me for _your_ crimes! So yes, it’s not a dream. Answer my question already!"

The girl hummed infuriatingly, ignoring the question and electing to chew on her bottom lip. She gazed off somewhere in the distance, seemingly lost in thought. “Huh,” the girl said. “Really. My world, my body. Which would mean... this is actually your world and your body?” The girl glanced down at herself, contemplatively. Then the girl glanced up, back at Weiss, eyes widening in realization, and abruptly burst out laughing.

“Wait a second!” the girl said, in between laughs, shoulders shaking. “Wait! That means you— you’re— And I’m— Oh, so that’s why you’re so angry! Oh, you are so completely one hundred percent _fucked_!”

“I’m glad you find the situation so funny,” Weiss said, coldly. “This is messed up.”

“Yeah, it is,” the girl kept laughing. “Oh, wow. Wow! I guess the gods have decided to grant me a blessing after all! Though it beats me why they would do such a thing, I sure as hell don’t deserve it.”

“Please tell me you know how to fix this.”

“No, I have no clue,” the girl said. “Both to the problem of our switching bodies, and to the problem of what I have to assume is your imminent prison sentence. I know the sources Cinder had on me and that she was documenting everything. I mean, she knew I was doing the same thing to her. But now that we’ve backstabbed each other, if it’s really all out in the open— we’ve essentially committed ourselves to mutually assured destruction. Unfortunately, there’s no going back from that.”

“So you really did do those things then. Plot to destroy Beacon. Fund the White Fang. Other criminal enterprises I’m forgetting at the moment.”

“Uhh,” the girl said, then nodded. “Yeah, sort of. Yeah, I did. I’m guessing from your expression that even if I hadn’t been found out, you wouldn’t have approved.”

“I—” Weiss took a deep breath then exhaled largely. Her head felt like it was going to explode. “I have no words.”

“Hm,” the girl said, cocking her head. “You’re Weiss Schnee, too. But I can already tell you’re different from me.”

“I was going to be a Huntress,” Weiss said quietly, tiredly.

Anyways, she didn’t think that was going to happen now. Huntresses were held to a higher moral and ethical standard across every board and in this world, she wasn’t even enrolled in Beacon. There was a moment of silence. Then, other Weiss said in a suddenly serious tone of voice, “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m sorry you seem incapable of understanding that maybe I’m not evil like you.”

“No,” other Weiss said. “No, I mean, how could you be a Huntress without an Aura or Semblance?”

“...What?”

Other Weiss’s mouth set into a thin line. She said, “Show me.”

“Look, you’re not making any sense."

“Show me your Semblance,” other Weiss said. “Your glyphs. That’s your Semblance, isn’t it? Glyphs? The Schnee family Semblance. Do it.”

Weiss was taken aback by the change in demeanor other Weiss had undergone. It was like at the flip of a coin, other Weiss had become a completely different person. She saw a coldness enter other Weiss’s eyes which had been filled with mirth just a second ago.

It reminded Weiss of the black and white picture that had accompanied the headline of the newspaper. Her father’s eyes. It sent a shiver down her spine. 

“ _Do it_ , I said."

Mutely, Weiss held out the palm of her hand and concentrated. It was a bit more difficult than usual, given that her Aura was busy working overtime to heal this body, but she managed a small platform glyph, glowing white.

Other Weiss’s expression had turned to stone. She asked, “Are you the head of the SDC?”

Weiss couldn’t see how that question tracked to the question of Semblances. “No,” she said. “I’m still the heiress. My father is in charge.”

“Your father,” other Weiss said. She sounded the word out like it was completely alien and foreign to her. If possible, her voice had gone even colder. “I see.”

“Your father,” Weiss ventured. “Is it true you had him poisoned?”

“I was trying to kill him,” other Weiss said. "I wish he had died."

Weiss swallowed. Her anger from before was gone and replaced with a quiet horror. This was a Weiss Schnee, too, but one so markedly different from her she had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea it was a Weiss at all.

“...You can’t use your Semblance?” Weiss said.

“What do you think?” other Weiss said. “I would have fucking showed it to you if I could use it, wouldn’t I have?”

“Didn’t Winter unlock your Aura?”

Other Weiss laughed humorlessly. “I’m not sure what kind of relationship you have with your family here,” she said. “But as for my family, they loathe me.”

“Even Winter?”

“Especially Winter.”

“Why?”

“That is completely none of your business,” other Weiss said. “You wouldn’t understand."

And before other Weiss could get out another word, the image of her in the mirror dissolved, and Weiss was left standing alone in the bathroom, staring at only her reflection once again.

++

Weiss had jinxed herself, probably, talking of the gods blessing her, and now to balance the scales, they had decided to promptly curse her. Strolling across the park in his fine white suit, brow furrowed and every inch of his expression radiating annoyance, it was none other than the devil of the hour, Jacques Schnee.

Weiss stood up so fast if she was in her old body, she would have probably given herself whiplash. As it were, though, it was too late to run— the man had already seen her and was approaching.

“Weiss,” Jacques Schnee said, stopping in front of her. Weiss stood there without answering, simply drinking in the sight of the man she had tried to have killed just under a year ago being well and alive. She took in all of him, from his hairline to his jaw to his stupid mustache, and felt the hate roil in her soul.

The dream not-dream had been going on too well. It needed some excitement and action to spice things up, apparently. 

So, anyways, Jacques Schnee.

" _Weiss,_ " he said again, meaningfully.

“ _Father_ ,” Weiss responded, with just as much emphasis. She crossed her arms. “I didn’t know you were in Vale.”

“Why aren’t you in the hospital? Don’t you know how much of a nuisance it’s been, searching for you?”

“Not much of one, I would imagine, given that I’ve been gone for less than a few hours.”

Her father’s eyebrows shot high up. “Did you lose all your manners while you were away at Beacon?”

“No, I just don’t particularly have any respect for you.”

Jacques Schnee reached out and grabbed her by the arm. Weiss tensed and pulled back, instinctively. She should have expected it to be a given that Jacques Schnee was an asshole in this world, too. He was probably an asshole in every world.

“I’m taking you back to Atlas with me,” he said. “It’s not safe here.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe here?” Weiss said. “Anywhere away from you— that’s the best place for me.”

Jacques yanked her in, close. She stumbled. 

“I’m going to let this go, once, seeing that you don’t seem to be in the entirely right state of mind,” he said, in a low voice. “I’m going to assume your mind’s been addled by all that smoke and Grimm.”

“The doctors do say I have a concussion,” Weiss replied, in an equally low voice. “But are you sure your mind’s not the one that’s been addled? There’s no smoke or Grimm anywhere near here.”

Jacques sneered. “You should be grateful I even made it to Vale after the CCT Tower fell and with General Ironwood about to shutdown the borders. I came to get you because I was concerned about your wellbeing.”

“You’re talking complete nonsense, old man,” Weiss said. “The day you’re worried about my wellbeing is the day Vacuo will freeze over. Why would General Ironwood shut down any borders? The CCT Tower? Please. That's—”

She had been about to say, the CCT Tower is under my control. She had been about to say, there is nothing wrong with the CCT Tower. But, wait a second. Wait, wait, wait. That was right, wasn’t it? If she took her earlier conversation with her reflection as a fact, then she wasn’t in her world anymore, wasn't she?

In this world, Weiss Schnee wasn’t the head of the SDC but an aspiring Huntress. Which meant that in this world, Weiss Schnee had probably never had the resources to make contact with Cinder Fall. Continuing the line of logic to its obvious conclusions, in this world, Weiss Schnee had never double crossed CInder, and Cinder had never double crossed her. In this world, no one’s plans had ended up exposed.

Her father must’ve taken Weiss's contemplative silence as a sign of her acquiescence, because he began to march her, quite stiffly, out of the park and back in the direction of the hospital. Weiss, in the meantime, was too distracted to bother resisting. She was staring off in the distance, in the direction of the cliff that Beacon was supposed to rest in. The cliff was there. Beacon was there. But she had the sense, somehow, that things didn’t look quite right. There seemed to be… something… at the top of Beacon Tower.

While they had been speaking to each other, Weiss had been too busy delighting in the irony of the situation to actually ask the other Weiss Schnee what had happened to her. She knew what she had undergone— Cinder had given her the beating of a lifetime. But how had this Weiss ended up in the hospital? How had Yang Xiao Long, a prominent huntress-in-training, lost her arm?

_“Are you messing with me right now, Weiss?” Yang growled. She sounded angry. “What the hell is wrong with you?”_

Winter was here, in Vale. If she was here, that meant there had been no blockade of the Atlesian military fleet. Yet when Weiss glanced up at the sky, she saw a conspicuous absence of Atlesian airships. When Weiss glanced around the streets, she could see the mood was gloomy, down, as if some kind of great national tragedy had just happened.

If she just had to guess, perhaps there had been a Grimm attack? Perhaps, if she was so bold to assume, the White Fang had deigned to show their rat faces? Perhaps the Atlesian military had completely and unexpectedly turned on Ironwood and made it their undisguised personal mission to start shooting up the streets?

Perhaps, if she had paid more attention while gallivanting around the hospital, she would have realized that all the neighboring rooms were chock to the brim full of Beacon students and other civilian casualties?

Ah. Fuck.

Well then.

Things had clicked together with a disgusting amount of clarity. This was no longer an unexpected and not entirely unwelcome turn of events. For Weiss Schnee’s individual welfare, sure, she was certainly better off in this world. But if Cinder Fall had actually pulled off her batshit, insane plan, even without SDC support— damn. Weiss had to give that woman credit where credit was due. She had guts and tenacity.

Whirring at the top of the hospital, Weiss could see the airship branded with the SDC’s logo. Her father began to drag her through the front doors and to the elevators, mumbling vitriol under his breath. When she thought about it, Weiss should probably just be amazed that the city of Vale was still intact. Everyone was so fucked. 

Fine. So be it then. If that was the case, and there wasn’t any point to it all anymore, then she was done. She would live her goddamn life however she wanted to live.

Weiss dug her heels into the floor abruptly. Her father stopped to stare at her, the grip on her arm tightening. With a burst of physical strength she didn’t know she was capable of mustering, Weiss yanked her arm out of his hand.

“You can go to hell,” she told him. “I’m not returning to Atlas with you, and I hope your airship crashes and burns on your way back.”

They weren’t alone in the hospital lobby, and she had spoken loudly, so Weiss heard the murmurs start up around them immediately. Every facial muscle on Jacques Schnee’s face tightened, and his mustache twitched. “How dare you,” he hissed, leaning in. “Young lady. This is your last warning.”

“Take your money and shove it right up your fucking ass,” Weiss said. “And you know what? I do dare. I dare you to disown me, right here, right now. You have my goddamn permission, _Father._ ”

So Jacques Schnee did. Disown her right then and there, that is. She could see it in his eyes that he wanted to give her a good smacking, too, as he did so, but they were in public, and he couldn’t simply do something like that with so many people watching. As Weiss watched Jacques Schnee storm away, disappear up the elevators, the satisfaction and elation she felt was indescribable. Goodbye, she thought, and good fucking riddance. How she wished she had had the opportunity to do that in her original world.

Close by, she heard someone whistle appreciatively. She turned and saw that it was Qrow Branwen. If she recalled correctly, he was a member of Ozpin’s inner circle.

“You sure showed him, Pint-sized,” Qrow said. “Never in a million years would I have thought you had that in you. Nice speech.”

“‘Pint-sized’?” Weiss repeated, incredulous, as the victory she had felt in the moment was washed away by a wave of annoyance. She felt both wary and irate as the veteran Huntsman approached her. “Excuse me? What? I’ll have you know, I am not _Pint-sized_ .” Besides, if anything, this Weiss’s body was _buff._

“Sure thing, little Schnee,” Qrow Branwen said, then smirked. “Say, what are you doing down here anyways? Shouldn’t you be resting up in your room? And, aren’t those my niece’s clothes?”

“...I was taking a walk,” Weiss said. “Fresh air, and all that. Might have to clear my nose again though after that recent garbage, I can still feel his stench stinking up the place.”

“You know what,” Qrow mused. “I kinda like you.”

Weiss was, admittedly, a little tired after what had happened in the past hour. The seemingly boundless energy and positive feeling she had experienced upon first waking up had already dissipated, and what had initially been a tiny, minuscule headache had graduated to a full on head-pounding. Qrow and her went up the elevator together, to the floor her room was on. Outside her door, Weiss slipped out of Yang Xiao Long’s clothes and returned them to Qrow.

“You don’t have a place to stay now, do you?” Qrow said.

“Not anymore at least,” Weiss shrugged. Hopefully, this Weiss had been smart enough to at least stash some money away. “But it’ll be fine. I’ll figure something out.”

“Hm,” Qrow said. He seemed to be thinking over something. “Well. I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Sure. Maybe.”

Weiss went inside her room. She laid on the bed, pulling the covers over her body. She stared at the ceiling for a while, then turned over. After a while, she turned over again.

Her thoughts went to resume the engine of the machine she had started into motion earlier, just before her confrontation with her father. Whatever. If things were like actually like this, then really, fuck the world. It didn't matter what she did anymore. It was like she had already resolved: she'd live this life the way she wanted, no matter how short it might end up being. In a long, dark labyrinth with no exits, a path of light had suddenly appeared above her for her and her personally. She'd be a fool not to take it.

"I'm not going to apologize," she said.

She closed her eyes and was asleep in seconds.


	3. Chapter 3

“I don’t need you to tell me I don’t have a chance,” Weiss said. “I know I don’t have a chance.”

The lead lawyer on Weiss’s legal team, who Weiss had discovered went by the name of Gray, gave her what she could’ve mistaken for a sympathetic glance had she not known he only cared about her for her money. Gray said, “We can’t say that for certain yet. There a lot of variables that can still affect the outcome of the trial.”

“Like what? The weather?” Weiss remarked. She thought about laying her face on the table then went ahead and did it. “I’m screwed. Completely. Might as well quit while I’m still ahead.”

It had been two days since Weiss’s talk with the other Weiss Schnee in the mirror in the bathroom. In that time, her legal team had managed to do one better than the private hospital wing and gotten her moved into a private penthouse under the care of a personalized medical team. When her arrest and pending charges were officially finalized— and Weiss had noticed this, that Gray had said when and not if— Gray told her that she would probably have to pony up a more than hundred million Lien bail. Pocket change for a Schnee, he had said. Not a big deal. Now, the real problem would be if the judge decided to deny her bail. Which, he admitted, was a definite possibility.

For the umpteenth time, cheek pressed against the wood, Weiss thought about how she was so rich and so royally fucked. She had only needed to take a single look at the financial records so alluded to by Ironwood and Qrow in the hospital room to come to this conclusion. All over the web, countless other people who had pored over the records had come to the same conclusion, a singular consensus. The number of suspicious wire transfers to suspicious accounts in themselves were enough to create a basis for an international fraud case. And that was all before factoring in the other documents or files.

Such as the video of Weiss conspiring to kill her own sister with Cinder Fall.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised that footage actually existed.

_“Yeah, I don’t know. If Ironwood shows up, just blast him or something. Isn’t that all that you’re good for— the blasting? Oh, what? My sister? Eh. No, no, do it. Go right for it. Whatever you need. Yeah. Yeah. I recommend you aim for her head.”_

_Cinder Fall, a grainy image, barking a low, rich laugh. Something said, indistinguishable._

_“If you want to call being honest about the way I feel ‘heartless’, sure. I thought you of all people would understand not being afraid to speak the truth. We have no feelings of lost love.”_

Weiss frowned against the table. Other Weiss’s words echoed in her head.

_“I was trying to kill him,” other Weiss said, cold voice and cold eyes. “I wish he had died.”_

No feelings of lost love.

Weiss’s father… How Weiss felt about him… She didn’t like the man, sure. But she didn’t want Jacques Schnee dead either. That was the truth, wasn’t it? Her truth. She couldn’t be so awful a person as to wish her father would die. She refused to be that kind of person.

“Miss Schnee?” Gray spoke, snapping her out of her daze.

Weiss pushed herself to a proper sitting position. “When will the trial be held again?” Weiss asked.

“We can’t know for sure, but I estimate in two to three weeks,” Gray said. “This is a fairly high profile case, so they’ll most likely be trying to rush it through.”

“So I have two to three more weeks of freedom left,” Weiss said. “Fantastic.”

“Worst case scenario, we have some tricks up our sleeve to drag out the date you’d be expected to show up in court,” Gray shrugged. “At the very least, we can prolong it for another week.”

“So three to four weeks of freedom,” Weiss said, nodding with understanding. “Thanks for correcting me. Glad to hear it.”

“Miss Schnee, you should have more faith in us. I told you I think we have a good shot of winning the case. Oh, and before I forget. About the matter of your bodyguards,” Gray said, shuffling some papers. He cleared his throat. “They’ll be arriving in Vale today shortly. You can expect them in the early evening. The Atlesian legal team sends their regards and mentioned to expect your usual retinue.”

“Alright, fine, whatever,” Weiss sighed. Weiss didn’t really see the point of having bodyguards but she wasn’t about to waste her energy arguing with her lawyer over the small things when there were still so many more details to worry about. For the next hour or so, the two of them went over some of said details, signing off on reports and communications that were supposed to go to the SDC, putting together a vague public statement, doing research into the public team that would prosecute her. Eventually Gray left, citing another matter he had to attend to. 

The private penthouse was certainly luxurious and roomy, but awfully empty, too, and sitting at the table by herself, Weiss found herself missing the beeping of the monitor machine in the hospital.

She hadn’t felt this lonely since Schnee Manor.

How depressing.

Weiss rubbed her eyes and went to the bathroom, intending to check up on her wounds. In the past two days, they had all healed up mostly well, which Weiss knew was a result of her Aura. Officially in this world, Weiss Schnee wasn’t supposed to have an Aura or Semblance. As a result, Weiss didn’t know if she should let anyone onto the fact that now she did have those things, mainly because of the way other Weiss had reacted to the mention of Aura and Semblances at all. Better to be cautious in the short run, Weiss thought, than sorry in the long run.

So far, Weiss trusted no one, not because she wanted to trust no one, but because no one trusted her. Ozpin and his group had made it all too clear that she wasn’t welcome with them and that she should probably expect a hostile visit from them again in the future. Nor had Weiss had any opportunity to interact with the people she would’ve considered her friends and acquaintances back in her world. Not a single person had reached out to her.

Which, admittedly, was also partly her fault. She was cowed by her negative reputation. She was afraid to try to find and reach out to the people she knew, not because she was afraid they wouldn’t know her, but because she was afraid they would know of her and they would hate her.

And she knew she would be hated.

_Other Weiss laughed humorlessly. “I’m not sure what kind of relationship you have with your family here,” she said. “But my family, they loathe me.”_

_“Even Winter?”_

_“Especially Winter.”_

“Ruby,” Weiss mumbled, slumping against the bathroom sink. She wondered what her partner was doing at this moment. She wondered if Ruby was thinking about her like Weiss was thinking about Ruby. She wondered if Ruby would hate her, too.

Weiss knew what the Ruby in this world was likely up to. Likely she was at the Vytal Festival, helping her sister prepare for the final round right around the corner, what people were calling one of the most anticipated matches of the decade: three time Mistrali champion Pyrrha Nikos against Yang Xiao Long, an up and coming Huntress with an impressive family legacy. Yes, the Ruby in this world was probably completely fine and healthy and happy. But the last Weiss had seen of the Ruby in her world had been her partner hurtling up the side of Beacon Tower, about to go face off with Cinder Fall and a giant Grimm dragon. Then that blinding flash of light… And Weiss, waking up in the hospital…

“Are you talking about Ruby Rose?” she heard the question from the mirror.

Weiss looked up.

The other Weiss Schnee was there. This time, she seemed to be in a bathroom, too. She was watching Weiss with a curious, cat-like expression, dressed in a hospital gown.

“Ruby Rose?” other Weiss said. “That Ruby?”

“You… You ignored me for two whole days,” Weiss said, disbelieving. The anger slowly crept into her, quieter than last time, but no less intense. “After you ran off in the middle of our conversation, the first time we had ever spoken to each other, when we weren’t even sure if we could talk to each other again at all, and then you just straight up _ignored_ me, for _two whole days_ —”

“I had a kind of unfortunate interruption,” other Weiss dismissed with a flippant wave of her hand. “And then I was tired, so I slept for a long time. And then I woke up and was busy doing research about this world. So I didn’t have the energy to speak with you. Perhaps I was purposefully ignoring you. Whups. Sue me.”

“You should have at least tried to say something to me! You owe me that much! We could have helped each other.”

“Come on, you sound like a jealous girlfriend. I don’t owe you anything. Besides, I feel like a Scroll and the web are already pretty effective for learning things. I don’t particularly need your help.”

Weiss’s mouth worked soundlessly for a couple of seconds.

“And I don’t particularly, hm,” other Weiss said. “It’s hard to say this in a way that won’t make me sound like an asshole. But I thought about things a little bit more, and I came to the realization that I don’t particularly have a reason to care about you? Like, at all? I can do whatever I want?”

Weiss slammed her fist into the bathroom sink. Her mouth was working fine now. She uttered a curse. 

Other Weiss chuckled. “Nice. I was really worried you were about to give me some kind of ‘We’re in this together speech’. You sort of seem like that kind of person.”

“We’re in each other’s _bodies_ ,” Weiss snarled. “We’re literally in this together, like it or not. And you do owe me.”

“I’m not going to help you figure out how to switch our bodies back,” other Weiss said, flippantly. “If that’s what you were going to suggest. I’m better off here. I am.”

“That’s my body! And this one is yours!”

“Yeah, I know what I said, I’m better off here. So I think I’m just going to stay here, y’know, for as long as I want.”

“You complete selfish prick,” Weiss said. “How about you tell me why you can’t use your Semblance?”

This was only their second interaction, and Weiss was already sure she would never meet anyone who could tick her off as much as this girl could. It figured that it was another version of her from another world of all people. If the other Weiss Schnee was going to treat her like this, with such disrespect, then fine. Two could play at that game.

At her question, the other Weiss glared at her. Weiss swore the temperature in the room suddenly dropped several degrees, but she kept her gaze steady.

“Fuck you,” other Weiss said.

“No, fuck _you_ ,” Weiss said.

“I’m glad I decided to converse with you again,” other Weiss said, “if only so I could tell you to never talk to me again. You’re very bothersome.”

“As if I enjoy speaking with you either,” Weiss said.

“I can’t believe you decided to waste what little potential you had in this world to become a Huntress,” other Weiss said. “And then you didn’t even have the brains to make it as leader. Compared to me, you’re just a dumb jock.”

“Excuse me?”

“Dumb jock Weiss,” other Weiss said sagely, and pointed at her. “That’s you. Low IQ and bad life decisions.”

“Your life,” Weiss said, “is the one actually about to be in shambles. Yours.”

“Well,” other Weiss flashed a thin smile, “it’s not mine anymore. So they’re not my problems anymore, are they?”

“Yeah? Really? I’d love to see make it so well in my life then,” Weiss snapped. “A Huntress without an Aura or Semblance. Get mauled by a couple of Beowolves out there on the field, why don’t you?”

A moment of silence. Other Weiss didn’t look particularly happy at her. Actually, she looked straight up murderous. Weiss decided to take this as a positive sign. She sensed she had gained some sort of invisible upper hand in the conversation.

“The fact that you decided to talk to me again at all, despite your various complaints, is telling me that you do understand,” Weiss said. “We do need each other’s help.”

“I’d be more willing to cooperate if you stopped blaming me for what happened,” other Weiss said. “I didn’t steal your body. I didn’t ruin your life. I don’t quote unquote ‘owe’ you. Get that into your thick skull, and then we have a deal.”

Weiss gritted her teeth and pointed out, “I never said I blamed you for what happened. I never said you ruined my life. You’re putting words into my mouth.”

“I know you’re thinking it. Or something along those lines. That’s what I would be thinking, if I were in your position, and we’re different, true, but surely not that different. We’re both still Weiss.”

Weiss twitched. Her instinct was to get angry again and to vehemently disagree, on principle. But she reigned her instinct in. Doing that wouldn’t have done either of them any favors. Let the other Weiss Schnee believe what she wanted about her— they weren’t friends, and they weren’t going to be friends anytime soon. Weiss could accept this.

She would. She had to. She didn’t have much of another choice.

“Fine,” she said.

“Fine,” the other Weiss said.

Then, other Weiss said, “To start, you’re going to help me fake my way past the Xiao Long family.”

++

Weiss Schnee didn’t do Regrets. If she did do Regrets, then her whole life would be one long list of them, starting with her birth. So if you asked her if she regretted telling her father to go suck a fat dick, her answer would be a definitive no, she did not regret that. 

If you asked her if she should’ve ascertained her financial situation more carefully before pulling the nuclear trigger, she would have said hm, maybe. 

Maybe.

“I’m going to be blacklisted in every industry under the sun from here to Atlas,” Weiss had realized the morning after getting herself disowned, watching the sun rise beautifully over the distant, ruined parts of the city. “And to top things off, I don’t even have a proper education. I don’t have any credentials or degrees. And now, I don’t even have any money.” 

So, what did she have? After completing the requisite research about the world, confirming that Beacon had fallen and everything and everyone was probably fucked, she had turned to researching herself and come to a couple of conclusions. On paper, she had one year completed at Beacon, an admittedly pretty nice physique, and a fancy rapier. In actuality, she had poor combat ability, an admittedly pretty nice physique that was going to waste away if she didn’t do anything to maintain it, and a fancy rapier she didn’t know how to use.

Go figure this would be her start to living her life the way she wanted.

“Prison is better than being homeless,” other Weiss sneered in the mirror. “Who’s the dumb one now? Are you sure you don’t want to try to switch back?”

“I’m not about to be homeless, that’s just you being dramatic,” Weiss said. “Besides, we made a deal, remember? Which means you’ve already agreed to help me fake my way past Qrow Branwen and Yang Xiao Long plus similars.”

“I can’t believe,” other Weiss began, then stopped with an exasperated noise. “I can’t believe you actually said those awful things to Yang, and now you expect yourself to be able to go live with her and Ruby in their family home in Patch.”

“I didn’t know Yang Xiao Long was your teammate then. I thought I was in a dream. I can blame it on the fake concussion if it comes down to it.”

“I just… Why don’t you ask Winter for help instead? She’ll help you. She’d put you up somewhere.”

“Hell no,” Weiss scoffed. “Nope. No way.”

“I know you said your family isn’t on good relations with you here, but my Winter and I—”

“No. And that’s that.” Just the idea of going to Winter Schnee on her knees, begging for help, was enough to make Weiss want to curl up and die. Each time Winter visited her in the hospital room, which had happened multiple times by now, the awkwardness and tension in the air became so thick a person would likely need a giant mecha scythe in order to cut through it. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Weiss would let the world end a thousand times over before she went to Winter Schnee. Weiss would.

“You got me disowned,” other Weiss said, suddenly. “You actually got me disowned. I know you said not to blame you for ruining my life, but—!”

Other Weiss messaged her forehead.

“You went off tangent there,” Weiss said. “I think you should look on the positive side of things.” For instance, being grateful that Beacon hadn’t been destroyed and how everything over there was bright and full of flowers, even if other Weiss would inevitably have to observe said brightness and flowers from the inside of a cell. 

“This is a lot to take in,” other Weiss hissed. “All that talk about not ‘particularly’ needing my help and not liking me when _this_ is your situation! You bluffed your way straight through our conversation. Hypocritical much?”

Weiss frowned. “Hey, I never lied. I’m always honest. Even without you I would’ve figured something out anyways. So, quit whining. The only reason I’m in a bit of a bind in the first place is because you were too stupid to stash any money away.”

“Gods. You’re insufferable.”

“Tell me about your life.”

Other Weiss wiped the bitchy annoyed expression from her face, replacing it with something more serious. “The basic rundown of the situation,” she leant in. “What do you know so far?”

“You were on a huntress team with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Ruby Rose was your partner and the leader of the team. Qrow Branwen is her and Xiao Long’s uncle. Blake Belladonna, who’s probably White Fang, was also a member of your team, but she’s missing now, so we won’t need to talk about her.”

“How could you possibly already know that Blake used to be part of the White Fang?” other Weiss’s eyes widened. A moment of silence. Then, “Blake is missing?”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “I just said we won’t need to talk about her. I mean, the White Fang thing was easy enough to suss out. Belladonna? The same as Ghira Belladonna, former White Fang High Leader and current chieftain of Menagerie? Come on. You don’t need a lot of brain cells to put the pieces together.”

Other Weiss bristled. 

“Oh wait,” Weiss continued, brightly. “I just remembered that you’re a dumb jock so you don’t have any brain cells. Duh, stupid me.”

“How is Blake missing?” other Weiss demanded. “Is she alright? What happened to her? You can’t just say things like oh, Blake is missing and we don’t need to worry about her and not expect me to worry about her, not when the last time I saw her she had been lying on the ground in front of a ruined Beacon with a hole through her stomach!"

“Oh, this is going to be difficult,” Weiss realized. “Oh. You _care_ about your teammates. I’m going to have to pretend I care about them. Oh, sheesh.”

“Yes,” other Weiss said, angrily. “And you’re going to have to do one better than ‘pretending’ to care about them. You’ll look into what happened to Blake. You will. And then you’ll tell me, because that’s the least you could do in return for me helping you.”

“Ugh,” Weiss said. “Whatever suits your high horse. I expect you want me to fill you in on the things Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose get up to, too.”

“Yes.”

Weiss thought about telling the other Weiss that it didn’t really matter what anyone got up to in this world anymore because now that Beacon had fallen and Ozpin was dead, it was kind of already going to be over. In a way, a lot of things had become pointless. It would have been worth it to see the other Weiss’s expression to tell her those things, but at the same time, Weiss had the feeling it would provoke a whole conversation and a headache she didn’t want to deal with. 

The other Weiss Schnee’s righteous anger gradually faded as she started to get into explaining the personalities of Rose and Xiao Long as well as some basic biographical details. She talked about their first meetings and first impressions, as well as a number of notable interactions that might come up in conversation. She brought up the names of a number of other individuals Weiss should also know: Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren. Of course, Weiss recognized Pyrrha Nikos’s name, but she didn’t mention that. After all, Pyrrha Nikos had been confirmed dead.

There was something else that Weiss picked up on as the other Weiss talked and got more and more absorbed in the conversation. It was subtle, but a number of clues helped her arrive at this particular conclusion.

“Ruby Rose,” she said, slyly. “You sure like to talk about her a lot. Her name was the first thing I heard you say, too. What did you call her again? Your partner and best friend?”

The nail on the proverbial coffin— other Weiss’s face immediately pinking. “We’re getting off topic,” she said. “I don’t know much about Qrow Branwen. We’ve only interacted once before, so I don’t think he’s going to catch on if you say something you’re not supposed to. I think you should be worrying more about your combat abilities and your personality.”

“Qrow Branwen will be fine. He likes me. I’ll worry about the combat abilities later. As for your personality, well. I don’t need any of your help faking it,” Weiss snickered. “Holier-than-thou dumb jock. Potentially gay for her leader. I think I’ve got it pat down.”

“You—” Other Weiss’s face turned a delightful shade of scarlet. She opened her mouth, probably to continue her weak retort, but abruptly froze instead, cocking her head to the side. Her mouth thinned into a line.

“...I’ve got to go,” she said. “I forgot. I’m supposed to be meeting some people today.”

“Ha, and you called me a hypocrite,” Weiss said. “When you’re the one who’s going to abandon the conversation this time.”

“But we’ll talk again soon,” and the other Weiss’s voice took on a threatening tone. “You said it yourself that we had a deal. Tomorrow. I swear, if you ignore me again, I don’t care what it’ll cost me, I’ll cross through this mirror to strangle you myself.”

The mirror fogged over until all that remained was the reflection of a girl with a distinct facial scar. Weiss turned on the faucet and splashed water over her face. She studied the reflection, that face which belonged to the girl who she had just talked to, the other Weiss Schnee. It had not been an unproductive conversation. Weiss had gotten what she wanted.

“Secretly soft-hearted,” she whispered to herself. “Covers her insecurities with a prickly outer layer. Lonelier than she would ever admit. Doesn’t know how to deal with her feelings. Hasn’t ever been in love before. Is definitely, stupidly, in love with Ruby Rose.”

All interesting, useful pieces of information, especially the last. Yes. Weiss felt pretty confident she had the personality thing in the bag. Anyways, it wasn’t the worst personality someone could have. She could comfortably pretend to be this Weiss as needed.

Later, Qrow knocked on the door to her hospital room and came in. Rose and Xiao Long had already been moved back to their home in Patch to recuperate, he explained, and after talking to their father Taiyang Xiao Long like Qrow had said he would, Taiyang had agreed to take in Weiss, saying he would be more than happy to if she needed a place to stay.

“Thank you. You don’t know how much I appreciate this,” Weiss said, because it was the kind of suck-up thing she knew people like the other Weiss Schnee would have said. She bowed her head then and made her eyes water a little— not too much, but just enough to make the satisfied expression on her face seem vulnerable instead.

“No worries, Pint-sized,” Qrow said. “Let’s get out of here.”


	4. Chapter 4

After fumbling with the locks for an embarrassing amount of time, hoping the blush in her cheeks had dissipated and mentally cursing the other Weiss Schnee, Weiss was finally able to open the door to her penthouse apartment. She was prepared to see another entourage of men in suits, similar to her legal team. Instead, she saw only two people standing in the doorway, dressed in casual streetwear, both girls and both kind of short.

_ “Penny?” _ Weiss gaped, unable to help herself. “You’re the bodyguards Atlas sent?”

“Miss Schnee!” Penny, alive and well and not at all torn into pieces, exclaimed with a cheerful, 1000 megawatt smile. “Oh, that’s the first time you’ve ever called me by my name!”

“Hey Boss,” the second person greeted, a girl with dark skin and long red hair tied into a ponytail. “You messed up big time.”

They gathered in the kitchen. Logically, Weiss had recognized the fact that Penny must have still been alive in this world if most of the events leading to Beacon’s Fall hadn’t happened, but seeing the other girl walking and talking and breathing was a whole other story. Penny babbled excitedly on and on about how good it was to see Weiss again while Weiss tried to process her presence. The dark-skinned girl walked around contemplatively.

“Blunt corners. Unplugged electronics. Overall, doesn’t look that unsafe,” she said. “These kitchen knives are suspect, though, I’ll toss them.”

Awkwardly, forcing herself to tear her eyes away from Penny, Weiss asked, “Uh, what?”

“Dull knives are more dangerous in a kitchen than sharp knives,” the dark-skinned girl explained. Taking one by the handle, she did a little toss, spinning it in the air, almost as if by way of demonstration, before catching it by the blade. “These are dull.”

Tossing knives around in a kitchen didn’t seem particularly un-dangerous either. “I… see,” Weiss said. “Would either of you like a glass of water?” 

The dark-skinned girl opened the trash can and began to dump the knives in. “No. Why would you ask? Did you also hit your head when that woman cooked you alive?” 

Well.

Weiss realized that while she had been busy giving the other Weiss Schnee details of her personal life and interpersonal relationships, of course other Weiss had completely failed to return the favor.

Thankfully, the dark-skinned girl seemed more interested in brushing past her to open and close the various kitchen cabinets, examining them for who knows what, instead of questioning Weiss. Which was a good thing, because if she did question Weiss, Weiss knew she wouldn’t have had any clue how to properly respond.

“Don’t worry. Ilia’s happy to see you, too,” Penny whispered in Weiss’s ear conspiratorially, making her jump. She hadn’t realized that Penny had snuck up on her. “She’s just upset you decided to come to Vale without taking either of us with you.”

“Oh, alright,” Weiss said, stupidly. At least she had a name now for the other girl: Ilia. “Uh, yeah, I’m happy to see you guys are here now, though. Sorry?”

“As for your offer, I would very much like that glass of water,” Penny said. She smiled happily. “You’ve never offered me a glass of water before! Miss Schnee, could it be that you’re finally learning your manners?”

Across the room, opening and shutting some curtains, Ilia audibly snorted. “That’s physically impossible. No offense to you, though, Boss.”

While Ilia started looking through the bedrooms, Weiss invited Penny to the living room with that glass of water and decided to begin a careful probe for information. Although Weiss was still trying to deal with the fact that Penny was well and alive, she had to admit that neither Ilia nor Penny were the kind of people who came to her mind when she invoked the word “bodyguard”. Also, wasn’t Penny supposed to be with the Atlesian military? The same Atlesian military controlled by General Ironwood, one of the people who didn’t particularly like Weiss, to the same the least?

Assuming that Penny’s origins were the same, not that Weiss knew what they were, Weiss wondered how the other Weiss Schnee had convinced Penny to start working for her in the first place, as well as how the two of them had met. In her world, Weiss’s initial meeting with Penny had involved a literal physical running into each other in the middle of a busy street. In her world, Ruby had been the one who had really been close with Penny, too. 

“So,” Weiss said. “Er. You’re not upset with me?”

Penny cocked her head quizzically. “Why would I be upset with you?”

“You know,” Weiss said. “The whole thing with Cinder Fall. All the breaking news headlines and documents. The particular situation.”

“Miss Schnee,” Penny said, leaning in closer to Weiss, wearing an abruptly solemn and simultaneously earnest expression. “I know you’re innocent. You’re not at all the kind of horrible person everyone is making you out to be. I could never be upset with you.” 

Weiss’s stomach sank a little. 

“There’s a  _ lot _ of documents out there, though,” Weiss tried. “Many people would disagree with what you’ve just said.”

“Ever since you took over the Schnee Dust Company, you’ve always had trouble with bad press,” Penny said. “Those people you’re talking about have always looked for any reason to be mean to you.”

“But it’s not as simple as a matter of bad press,” Weiss said. “It’s… I’ve really…”

She stopped. She couldn’t quite get the words out. 

One of the things that had shocked Weiss the most about Penny’s death had been the revelation that Penny had been an android built with synthetic Aura. But now, with Penny sitting here beside her and looking and behaving so human, Weiss found herself not wanting to disappoint her. She didn’t want to be hated. Especially not by Penny who looked at her with such kind, trusting eyes. 

“I believe in you,” Penny said. 

“Thank you for believing in me,” Weiss said, finally.

And despite Penny being the first person Weiss had encountered in this world who seemed genuinely on her side, her words had honestly only made Weiss feel more like the horrible person Penny said she wasn’t. Because wow, if Weiss wasn’t hiding some things, if the person Penny actually believed in hadn’t actually done so many horrible things. 

“Why is there so much blood back here?” she heard Ilia calling. “Boss! Did you murder someone?”

Ilia came strolling out of the bedrooms with a couple of red-stained sheets bunched in her arms. While Penny gasped, Ilia simply narrowed her eyes at Weiss. The accusation in her expression gave Weiss no delusions about the kind of person Ilia thought Weiss was.

“Some of my wounds reopened in the middle of the night while I was sleeping,” Weiss explained. “I didn’t have bandages on hand, so I, um, borrowed the extra sheets.”

“Your wounds reopened so you borrowed the extra sheets,” Ilia repeated, like she was speaking to a particularly slow child. “Why didn’t your medical team take care of your wounds, then? Speaking of your medical team, where are they? Shouldn’t they be monitoring you twenty-four seven?”

“They’ve been dismissed…?” Weiss said. “I decided their services were no longer required…?”

Which wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded. Her Aura  _ was  _ doing a good job healing her, almost too good of a job, and a medical team would’ve caught onto that fact immediately, which would’ve raised flags.

“Unbelievable. You are as childish and reckless as always,” Ilia frowned. “This is why you should never go anywhere without us. Sooner or later, you’ll end up accidentally getting yourself killed for real.”

Weiss blinked. She had never been on the receiving end of being called childish and reckless before. It was a new experience. “Ilia,” Penny chastised. “That was rude.”

Ilia strolled up to her. Up close, Weiss could see the raised bumps in her skin, slightly darker than the rest of her body, scattered like freckles. Ilia jabbed a finger in the direction of Weiss’s chest and Weiss barely managed to stop herself from recoiling when the color of Ilia’s skin changed. Oh. Okay. She was a Faunus, huh? That surprised Weiss.

"As I was doing my rounds, I noticed there’s no food whatsoever in this apartment,” Ilia said, slowly. “Not so much as a single breadcrumb. What exactly have you been eating, Boss?”

“...Not much?”

Then Ilia reached for her arm, which surprised Weiss even more than the fact that Ilia was a Faunus. Because Weiss had a Thing with other people touching her, and other Weiss surely also had a Thing with other people touching her, too, right?

Weiss did her best to avoid stiffening up as Ilia picked up her wrist, examining it. “You’ve lost weight again.”

“Oh, Miss Schnee,” Penny sighed. “Oh, you should really take better care of yourself.”

“I told you, Penny. I wasn’t being rude when I said she'd accidentally get herself killed without us,” Ilia said. She let go of Weiss’s wrist, let out an annoyed huff, and disappeared somewhere else into the apartment. “I’m going to go wash these sheets,” she called. “In the meantime, Boss, get dressed. We’re going out.”

++

Weiss’s closet hadn’t really been furnished with a lot of clothing. What it did have consisted mostly of business suits and other items Weiss would usually never be caught dead wearing when ‘going out’. The only thing that seemed consistent between the other Weiss Schnee’s taste in clothing and her taste in clothing was the color schemes. Whites, blues, and a smattering of reds.

Weiss stripped out of the T-shirt and sweatpants she had been wearing for the past two days and reluctantly picked out a dress shirt and jeans. She put them on. When she looked down at herself, she noticed that the shirt hung off her body like a tarp on a stick.

Yeah, she was going to need to start exercising and working out again.

Then, that annoying part of her mind that was already starting to take on the tone and voice of other Weiss pointed out,  _ You’ll have plenty of time to do that when you’re in prison. _

Weiss left the bedroom with a feeling of looming dread. In the living room, Ilia and Penny were patiently waiting for her. Specifically, Ilia had told Weiss that the three of them were going out to find a place for Weiss to eat. When Weiss had tried to protest by asking why couldn’t one of the two just bring the food back to the apartment for her, Ilia had shot her a look so dark it could have blotted out the sun.

“If you’ve really healed as much as you say you have, then you need to stretch out your legs and get some fresh air. Staying cooped up here won’t do you any good,” Ilia said. “And come on, we’re your bodyguards, Boss. Not your errand boys.”

“Don’t be afraid!” Penny said. “We will one hundred percent protect you, Miss Schnee! I won’t let anyone close! I’m combat ready!”

“Um, perhaps we could just get groceries instead?” Weiss had weakly suggested then, alarmed by Penny’s sudden intensity and the use of the phrase ‘combat ready’. “We don’t have to be gone that long? We can make the food ourselves?”

To that, all Ilia had to say was, “This is a nice apartment. Would be a shame if we burned it down.” Which left Weiss with no choice but to concede.

Once they actually left the apartment, however, Weiss found herself relaxing fairly quickly. The tight knot of anxiety in her stomach eased somewhat. Barely anyone on the street was giving her a second look, after all. No one seemed to recognize her. No one was stopping to point at her and shout, “Hey, everyone, that’s Weiss Schnee! Let’s lynch her!”

Ilia said, “I told you it would be good for you.”

“It’s a nice day,” Weiss agreed. “I’m glad I listened.”

A flicker of surprise crossed the Faunus girl’s face before Ilia’s eyes narrowed. Weiss had the feeling she had probably just said something out of character again. Weiss hurried to move the conversation forward.

“So anyways, where are we going?”

“We can just walk around until we find a place Miss Schnee likes,” Penny suggested. “Take in all the different sights.”

“I would’ve thought you would already know a place you would want to go, Boss,” Ilia said. “Since you’re in Vale so often for your ‘business trips’, after all.”

Business trips. That had been said in a funny, deliberately neutral tone of voice, the same kind which Weiss had noticed Blake often liked to use when Blake was trying to hide how upset she was. ‘Business trips’— it was a charged phrase, not even subtle in its implications that Ilia knew other Weiss had in fact not been in Vale for business. Which was good and well, although at this point it wasn’t just Ilia but practically the whole world who knew that Weiss Schnee had not been in Vale for actual business but to plot with an evil madwoman. Which, Weiss thought, in its own twisted kind of way, was actually also a sort of business… 

Weiss suddenly had the odd certainty that other Weiss had never treated her dealings with Cinder as anything besides the routine or mundane. She had probably never considered the morality of what she was doing, had never doubted for a single minute that this was what she wanted to do. Weiss fixed her gaze on the happily bustling city around them, Beacon standing in the distance, safe and undestroyed. Weiss allowed the awareness of  _ everything is fine, everything is okay right now, I’m not her,  _ to sink into her shoulders. 

“I like Penny’s suggestion,” Weiss said. And then, feeling brave, she said, “Actually, why don’t we take a look around the Vytal Festival?”

After they arrived at the fairgrounds and spent some time aimlessly wandering, Weiss picked the same noodle stall as the one RWBY had gone to after their team 4 v 4 match to eat at, feeling nostalgic. She felt even more nostalgic when, realizing she had forgotten to bring any Lien on her, Ilia had to cover the bill. 

“It’s your money anyways,” Ilia shrugged, flashing the Schnee snowflake emblem on the piece of plastic. “Company card.”

It was a little awkward, being the only sitting at the stall actually eating. Penny patiently explained that she normally couldn’t consume the kind of food other people did given her android form, and Ilia responded with a curt she never ate while on the job. Weiss recalled that Penny hadn’t actually drunk any of the water in the glass she had given her back at the apartment; instead Penny had just sort of held it in her hands while vibrating with excitement.

“I don’t think anything’s going to happen to me here,” Weiss said.

“I’m not taking those chances,” Ilia said. “Not after what happened in Mantle last year.”

“You can at least sit down. You don’t have to just stand there.”

“Mm,” Ilia said, gaze roaming through the crowds moving past the stall. “Well, I’m already standing here anyways. So what are you going to do about it?"  


Ilia, Weiss realized, took her job very seriously. While Weiss did her best to muster her appetite, she studied the Faunus girl out of the corner of her eye. So far, she couldn’t pin down what Ilia felt towards her. Duty? Hostility? How did a Faunus like Ilia even end up working for the head of the SDC as their personal bodyguard?

“We’ve known each other for a really long time, haven’t we?” Weiss said, casually.

“Yes,” Ilia nodded, absentmindedly. “You could say that.”

“Right,” Weiss said. “So, you know, you don’t have to call me ‘Boss’ all the time. You can just call me Weiss if you want. Same goes for you, Penny.”

Ilia shifted her posture. She glanced at Weiss and didn’t say anything. Penny laughed then hiccuped. Penny’s laugh, Weiss realized, was vaguely uncomfortable.

“Not in public or if you don’t want to,” Weiss appended, feeling defeated. “When it’s just the three of us, perhaps.”

“...You’re really going to do this?” Ilia said, at length. “You do understand what it feels like you’re doing, right?”

“No?”

“I don’t know why you wouldn’t have brought us along,” Ilia said. “I don’t understand why you would have kept any of it from us. It’s as clear a sign of ‘I don’t trust you’ as anything could be. And now, here you are, after the fact, telling me all of a sudden I can call you by your name again? What,  _ Weiss,  _ are you kidding me? I’m not just going to magically not get mad at you if you throw me a stupid carrot like this. It’s honestly demeaning.”

Weiss blinked, at a loss. The sudden bitterness in Ilia’s up to that moment business-like tone of voice and the torrent of words took her aback. “Wait,” she tried. “I didn’t mean it like that. I… I didn’t know you were that mad. We can talk about this.”

“Forget about it,” Ilia said. “This isn’t the time or the place. It doesn’t matter.”

Ilia shifted her position to a spot that brought her a couple feet away from Weiss. She began to scan the fairgrounds and passing crowds again, this time with a sharp downward slant to the corner of her mouth. Penny sidled up to Weiss’s side and whispered in her ear. “You’ll talk to her later, right Miss Schnee?” Penny said. “You have to. Ilia  _ may _ be more upset than I thought…”

“I can hear you, Penny,” Ilia said, icily. “Just ignore her, Boss. Like I said, it doesn’t matter.”

It felt like it very much did matter but Weiss didn’t know how to broach the topic. The point about it not being the right time and place was also true. There were a good number of people lining up behind her seat at the stall now, and Weiss hadn’t eaten an additional bite in minutes. The shopkeep kept giving her meaningful looks. Getting the memo, Weiss stood up.

“Let’s walk around for a bit more,” Weiss said. “Is there, um, anything specific you guys want to do?”

“We should watch the finals!” Penny said. “It’ll be fun! Who do you think is going to win?”

“I don’t know, it’s a tough call,” Weiss said. Then, she hesitated. Yang versus Pyrrha. That was the match. Two of her close friends back in her world. Should she really go…?

She didn’t have to talk to them, on the one hand. It would be reassuring just to see with her own eyes that the two of them were fine, that they were okay, that  _ everyone  _ was doing well. In the stands, lost in the crowds, no one would notice her. On the other hand, however, what if someone did notice her? Weiss Schnee, the SDC CEO, the scum who plotted to ruin this tournament among other things and cause harm to so many innocent people? Surely Weiss shouldn’t even be at the Festival right now. Surely Weiss wouldn’t dare to show her face.

“It’s about to start,” Ilia said, glancing in the direction of the arena. “You need to make a decision.”

Weiss shouldn’t. She knew she shouldn’t. But Weiss could remember the screams, the smoke, the tears. Yang, lying on the ground with her arm missing, Blake despondent and curled next to her. She thought of Ruby. Then, she remembered the loneliness in the apartment, all on her own. She thought of the long years stretched out before her, the same loneliness her only companion.

Other Weiss’s words.  _ I’m not going to help you figure out how to switch our bodies back, if that’s what you were going to suggest. I’m better off here. I am.  _ It struck Weiss then that this could be permanent. That she could be stuck here, in this world, forever.   


Gods. Weiss drew a deep, shuddering breath. Who the hell was she even trying to fool? The moment she had suggested they come to the Vytal Festival, she had known that it would come to this moment, this decision. What else could she choose?

“Can you cover the cost of the tickets as well?” she asked Ilia, quietly.

++

Weiss was acting strangely.

Well, Ilia had expected it. She had almost died. Every time Ilia talked to her, she was reminded of this fact. Weiss had almost died.

She remembered the precise moment she had found out about what happened in Atlas, right after she had gotten home from the training grounds. Ilia often went to the training grounds when she didn’t have anything else to do. This time, she had gone to try to distract herself from the gnawing worry in her stomach. It had been three weeks. What could Weiss even be doing in Vale for so long?

Enough was enough. Even if it was none of her business, even if after everything she was nothing more than a bodyguard to Weiss now (and fuck it all if that knowledge didn’t hurt), at the end of the day, Ilia deserved better than this. She resolved to confront Weiss when she came back.

Then she had flicked on the television and seen the evening news.

“What do you mean you can’t authorize the stupid flight?!” Ilia demanded. “We’re going to Vale!”

The secretary gave her a vague, unenthused smile. “Miss Amitola, you’re on the SDC’s payroll. Your duties and responsibilities are to the company and the company first.”

“Funny talk,” Ilia slammed her hand into the counter. “You know there isn’t an SDC without Weiss Schnee. Just look at what’s going at corporate. Everything there is going through a meltdown."  


“Miss Amitola, to tell you the truth,” the secretary said, “it’s not that I don’t want to authorize the flight. It’s not my job to worry about the how and why of things. However, I did receive explicit instructions from Miss Schnee herself on this exact matter.”

“...What do you mean?”

“Before she left, she made herself quite clear. I am not to let you or Miss Polendina follow her,” the secretary said. “‘Even if something so unfortunate should befall me.’ Those were her exact words.”

The company couldn’t really stop Ilia if she decided to buy a ticket with her own money, if she went on unofficial capacity. She could’ve. Maybe she should’ve. But standing there in that moment, palms still flat on the counter, feeling the fury slowly drain out of her, Ilia was smart enough to recognize the meaning of the message Weiss had left behind.

_ ‘I don’t trust you.’ _ She could just see Weiss’s blank face in her head, hear her cool, revealing absolutely nothing voice. And, of course,  _ ‘I don’t want you here.’  _

In the end, Penny, not knowing what Ilia had known, had been the one to force the matter. They had gotten those airship tickets from the SDC after all. In the present, recalling everything that had happened from where she sat in the roaring stands of the Amity Colosseum, Ilia felt her skin begin to instinctively change color. It was difficult to control herself. Weiss, who had almost died, who still looked like death, stick-thin, so small and fragile, like some rare delicate bird, just siting next to her, listening to the announcement of the start of the match with undisguised intensity and unusual investment. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” the announcers’ voices thundered over the intercom. “This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Please welcome, Yang Xiao Long and Pyrrha Nikos!”

The crowd erupted into deafening cheers. Weiss suddenly took in a sharp breath of air, leaning forward in her seat. Ilia, knowing that she was right there beside her, yet somehow still feeling the immeasurable gulf of distance existing between the two of them, unspannable. She could say something, reach out and touch her, but it would in the end be, inevitably, rendered meaningless.

_ “How did we become like this?” Ilia said, quietly. “We used to be friends. We used to be close. What happened?” _

_ “People change,” Weiss said. “You can either accept that or not. I’m not that person you knew anymore. You’re not the person I once knew either.” _

_ “And yet still, you’ll ask this of me.” _

_“Will you or won’t you do it?” Weiss said._ _"It's a simple enough question to answer." And she pressed the cool, silver vial into Ilia’s hand._

Down below in the arena proper, the match was just starting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all love some contrived angst, I’m going to tag Ilia and Penny now because I suppose they just became characters
> 
> Ruby will join the story soon and start playing a part, I have to justify that Whiterose tag somehow
> 
> If anyone is interested in being a beta reader, let me know!


	5. Chapter 5

On the cutting board, her thumb oozed a single, crimson droplet. Weiss set the knife down and examined the blood.

“Oh, you cut yourself?” Taiyang Xiao Long peered over from where he stood at the sink, washing vegetables. He turned off the faucet and wiped his hands on a dish towel. “Here, let me get you a bandage.”

“This is embarrassing. I’m afraid I’m not very good at cooking.”

“Don’t worry,” Taiyang smiled, kindly. “We all have to start somewhere.”

Taiyang left the kitchen. When he returned from wherever he had disappeared to, he handed her a band-aid with a cartoon duck on it. He chuckled sheepishly at the look she gave him.

“It’s all I could find!” he said. “From when Yang and Ruby were still kids.”

“I can see how they would have liked things like this,” Weiss commented. “It’s very them.”

“Yes,” Taiyang said. His expression grew a little sad. “It is.”

In silence, the two of them went back to their respective tasks.

After they were done making the meal and setting the table, Taiyang said, “Could you go get Yang? Tell her to come down.”

“Sure,” Weiss said. As she headed in the direction of the staircase, the family dog bounded up to her. She crouched down, considering the corgi for a bit, then gave its head a small pat.

She climbed the stairs. On the way to Yang Xiao Long’s bedroom, she passed by Ruby Rose’s, and she caught a glimpse of the younger girl’s prone form inside. Yup. The girl was still conked out. It was actually impressive, given that the Fall of Beacon, as the events of that particular day were already being dubbed, had happened a full week ago.

Yang was moping in her bed again.

“You’re moping again,” Weiss said. 

“I’m not in the mood, Weiss,” Yang sighed.

“Are you in the mood to eat? There’s food downstairs. I’m not going to wait on you hand and foot like your personal servant.”

“I’m coming,” Yang grumbled. “Just give me a second, alright?”

The three of them had a quiet lunch. The mood wasn’t entirely awkward, just subdued. When they were finished, Weiss took the plates and utensils to the sink in the kitchen and began to wash them. Yang trudged up the stairs, presumably to keep moping.

“You’re different from how Ruby described you,” Taiyang said, scratching his beard. “Not that it’s a bad thing. Here, let me.”

Weiss squeezed the sponge. Bubbles foamed over the tips of her fingers. She said, “No, it’s fine. I got it.”

“I’ll dry them, at least. Hand them off when you’re done?”

“Okay.”

As they worked, Weiss let her eyes wander around the kitchen and wondered why anyone would build cabinets that high up. It was a peculiar thing. She imagined growing up here as a child, with Taiyang Xiao Long as her father, in a busy and warm and full of life household instead of a cold and empty manor. She didn’t think it was a particularly revelatory conclusion that she would have been happy. Maybe she would’ve grown up preferring band-aids with cartoon ducks, too.

When they were finished with the dishes, the band-aid was loose and no longer sticky as a result of her submerging her hands in water. Weiss slipped it off her thumb, bunched it into a ball, and dropped it into the trash can.

“I’m going to head out for a bit of fresh air and practice,” she said. 

++

Domestic bliss was so very quaint and so very boring.

Well, it had been what Weiss had signed up for. Three days in Patch and while she wasn’t ready to do anything as drastic as tear her hair out, she was feeling the itch to do  _ something _ start to get to her. She figured it was more out of ingrained habit than anything else. For so long everything had been constantly balls to the wall and now they were just… not. She sure as hell didn’t miss her old life, though.

Weiss got along with everyone in the house well enough. Taiyang Xiao Long was nice. Yang Xiao Long was nice. Ruby Rose, who was unconscious, was nice. Qrow Branwen, when he dropped by to check up on things, was nice. She was sure that none of them suspected her to be anyone other than the person she was pretending to be. For the most part, she had masterfully inserted herself into this Weiss’s life, a parasite hiding in plain view.

She thought of Yang Xiao Long and their marginally improved relationship. Obviously, Yang Xiao Long was traumatized by the loss of her arm. She was quiet and sullen and refused to hold conversations with her father or Weiss for longer than a few sentences. In the beginning Weiss had thought maybe the blonde girl was still mad about their first interaction with one another in the hospital room, and she had acted appropriately horrified and apologetic and at a fumbling loss of words, as a friendly teammate ought to. Now, to be honest, she was a bit tired of walking on eggshells around Yang all the time. She wished Yang would get over it already and maybe pick up her share of the chores along the way. It was just trauma. So? Everyone had trauma. 

Oh well. Weiss didn’t really mean it that way. After three days, she was only bored and it was affecting her judgment a little. She was an asshole but not that much of an asshole. If she had to miss one thing about her old life, it would be that it hadn’t been boring.

At her designated meeting spot with the other Weiss Schnee, a relatively clear pond in the woods she had stumbled across on her first day in Patch, she found the other Weiss waiting in the water for her with that ever-present scowl of hers on her face.

“You’re late,” the other Weiss said.

“You’re testy,” she replied. “I was busy, you know? I can’t just shut up in my bathroom for hours like a time at the Xiao Long household like you can at your penthouse. I have to walk here and everything. Also, can you stop scowling? I don’t want my face to get lines.”

She settled into the ground and brushed her pant legs. One of the more unfortunate casualties of the Fall of Beacon was the loss of the other Weiss Schnee’s entire wardrobe. Currently, she was wearing casualwear borrowed from Ruby Rose’s closet, who was approximately similar in size to her.

“I was arrested today. And even then, I still managed to make it on time,” the other Weiss said, with a noticeable note of tightness to her voice. 

“Huh. So… they actually did it.”

“Yes.”

“How much was the bail? I’m going to feel disrespected if it was anything less than in the hundred millions.”

The other Weiss, with an intense noise of long-suffering, told her the number. Weiss nodded. She had not been disrespected.

“They took my fingerprint and my picture,” other Weiss said. “I officially have a mugshot now. Given the list of things I’m being charged with, I’m surprised they didn’t remand me to a holding facility until the court date. I thought they were going to give me an ankle bracelet on top of it.”

“Money talks,” Weiss shrugged. “And I— you— have good lawyers.”

“A little grease to help people look more favorably on the situation,” the other Weiss said.

The other Weiss looked away, towards the direction of the floor. She sounded sad.

“It’s not a huge moral dilemma,” Weiss said. “You think those people aren’t happy getting paid?”

“That’s not the point.”

“In case you’re wondering, they are happy,” Weiss said. “The way I see it, if they’re susceptible to being bribed in the first place, you already know they aren’t good people. The burden of poor morality falls on them for giving into their temptations and desires.”

“But doesn’t the snake who tempt them hold responsibility, too?”

“The snake is a snake. It can’t change its nature. It can’t get rid of its venom. It’s predestined to act a certain way.”

“I don’t believe in that. Things like destiny."  


“Good for you,” Weiss said. “Though I’m just explaining to you how it is.”

A moment of silence.

The other Weiss curled up, arms around her knees. She was sitting right against the mirror, Weiss noticed. She was slightly surprised to see that her whole body could fit on top of a bathroom counter like that. In that position, she seemed very very small. Very vulnerable.

The other Weiss said, “How are Yang and Ruby?”

“Xiao Long does nothing but sit in her bed all day moping. She might slightly hate me but she’s nice enough,” Weiss said. “As for Rose, she’s still unconscious.”

“Still?”

“Hm. Yup. Nothing wrong with her physically, but she isn’t waking up. Maybe what she needs is a fairy tale true love’s kiss. I could step up, it’s not a big sacrifice.”

“You should tell me more about Ilia and Penny. You never talk or ask me about them.”

Weiss blinked at the not at all subtle change in subject. She hadn’t missed the way that the other Weiss had reacted to her deliberately provocative words. No raised hackles, no blush, still not looking at her. It was completely different from how the other Weiss had reacted a couple days ago to the mention of Ruby Rose. The other Weiss was hugging herself, as if cold.

Interesting. Had something already changed involving her feelings for Ruby Rose? Was the other Weiss really so wishy-washy when it came to the matters of the heart? Not that Weiss herself had any heart to speak of or matters to tend to. It was, she recognized, something of a dead garden in there.

Anyways, about… Ilia and Penny, was it?

“I didn’t think that talking about them would have been relevant to our earlier discussions,” Weiss said. 

“They seem closer to you than normal bodyguards.”

“I’ve known them for a while. Ilia for five years, Penny for a little less than a year and a half.”

“Five years? That seems more than just ‘a while’ to me.”

“It’s just time, you know,” Weiss said. “It doesn’t have to be that significant if you don’t let it be.” Which was, in the end, the truth. Maybe a long time ago, whatever they had with each other had been significant, but that had been then and this was now. There was no use in agonizing over the things which were gone and better left gone.

“How am I supposed to interact with them? What do I say?”

“I don’t know,” Weiss shrugged. “Act whichever way you want. Say whatever you want. It’s not important to me anymore.”

“I think Ilia is angry at you.”

“Yes,” Weiss said. She thought about what the situation in Atlas had been like before she had left then nodded. “She would be angry. But it’s fine. She’ll drop it eventually on her own. I’m more surprised she ended up coming to Vale at all, after I basically told her not to.”

“I think Ilia wants an explanation.”

“Okay?”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well, what am I supposed to tell her when I don’t even know what the explanation is? I’ve read all these files and accounts but I’ve yet to hear from your mouth a single word about what you did and why you did them.”

“Because,” Weiss said. For the first time, she hesitated.

Weiss didn’t lie. She rarely lied. Was she conniving and deceptive and at times deliberately deflective? Yes. But in a way, she was an honest person, too.

The other Weiss looked up at her.

“Sorry,” Weiss said, not especially apologetic. “It’s not something I’m going to lie about, but I’m not going to talk about it either.”

The other Weiss sighed. “Of course,” she said. “Of course you won’t.”

“I will tell you that if you insist on buddy-buddying with someone, Penny is the better option.”

“Why?”

“Less baggage.”

“...Alright.”

A moment of silence.

“You’re lacking most of your usual bite today. You seem depressed.”

“I have a lot on my mind.”

“I would rather you scowl than make my face look as pathetic as it is right now. I don’t particularly like it.”

“It’s my face,” other Weiss muttered. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it. I’ll do whatever I want with it.”

“Your face, huh?” Weiss said. “Hm.”

“I miss people.”

The declaration was sudden and out of nowhere and almost sickeningly sentimental. It rendered Weiss speechless for a couple of seconds, which was a rare event. Weiss was almost never speechless. She always had something to say, sometimes too much to say.

“You’re not missing out on much,” Weiss said, eventually. “Domestic bliss isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.”

The other Weiss said nothing.

“Really,” Weiss said. “Actually, it’s very boring. I think I’ve done you a great favor, sparing you this suffering.”

“I talked to Ruby,” the other Weiss said. “Your Ruby. She… She didn’t recognize me.”

“That was to be expected, clearly.”

“It didn’t go well. Blake and Yang were also there. I went to the Vytal Tournament.”

“I’ll just reiterate my point, which is that that was to be expected, clearly, and that you also did something monumentally stupid.”

“Talking to you is like talking to a concrete wall,” the other Weiss said. “Everything I say goes nowhere.”

“I’m not going to offer you false comfort,” Weiss said, simply. “As for talking to me about these things, don’t do it if you don’t want to. In fact, let’s keep things simple between us— in the end, a deal is only a kind of business transaction.”

“Just forget it. Forget it. I don’t know why I bothered. If there’s nothing useful to say to one another, I think I’m done for today.”

The other Weiss clambered off the bathroom sink. It was Weiss’s turn to sigh. Something inside her twinged the slightest bit before subsiding.

“You’ll get used to being alone,” Weiss offered. “In time you won’t feel it at all. You won’t miss anyone anymore.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

Before she could react to the question, the image in the pond dissipated and then it was just her face. Weiss reached out with her hand and ran it through the water, making it ripple, distorting the reflection. Suddenly, she didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want to see white hair or blue eyes or a scar, this face.

“So dramatic,” she said, to no one.

The habit of talking aloud to herself when there was no one else to talk to— she wondered when she had started that, too.

Fish darting below the pond, scales gleaming in the early afternoon light, an earthly sweet scent of pond lilies. Weiss stood up, stretching her limbs. She reached for the rapier that hung at her hip, a solid weight. It was unfortunate that she had forgotten to ask the other Weiss Schnee for advice on how to use it.

As she hefted the rapier in her hand, the fuzzy edges of a memory surfaced. A long time ago, she had held a weapon a bit similar to this one. Whose had it been? 

Weiss spun the Dust chamber, just for kicks. She touched the engravings on the prongs above the hilt. This rapier was an elegant weapon, smoothly aesthetic.

Weiss backed away from the pond to give her a little more space in every direction. She raised the rapier into the air then pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, which was to be expected, because Weiss had emptied out the chambers of their Dust vials. The first time of almost setting herself on fire had been more than enough of an experience.

A couple jabs, thrusts, parries, clumsily executed. The muscle memory in this body was there but simply too weak to carry her through. The fuzzy memory rose up again, demanding her attention, whispering to her muffled instructions. Foot forward? Or a little more back? Was her elbow supposed to be at that angle?

_ “You hold it like this. Yeah. Give it a couple of twirls. How does it feel?” _

Weiss froze. That voice was...

Without meaning to, Weiss’s fingers tightened around the hilt of the rapier. She pulled it back down to her slowly, letting the tip of the rapier sink into the soil. Her body felt stiff, like a wooden board.

_ “If you press this button, it’ll change into whip mode. This one electrifies it. Hey, not right now! Be careful!” _

Right. Ilia. Of course. The weapon Weiss had held back then had been none other than Lightning Lash. To this day, Weiss knew, Ilia still used that same weapon.

_ “Weiss? You okay?” _

_ I miss people,  _ came the thought, an echo in the other Weiss’s voice, which was, of course, physically her own voice.

_ I miss people. _

_ I miss— _

No. Weiss frowned. No. The other Weiss Schnee’s sentimentality must’ve been rubbing off on her. New life, new her, new beginnings, however that saying went. There was nothing to miss. 

She stood there in the clearing for a while, unmoving, waiting for the memory to fade. It took longer than usual, but eventually it disappeared.

++

When she returned to the Xiao Long house, Weiss was in for two surprises, one of which was significantly more surprising than the other. The first surprise was that Qrow had apparently dropped by for another visit. The second surprise was that Ruby Rose was finally awake.

“Can I go see her?” Weiss asked, secretly hoping the answer was no.

“Qrow is talking to her now,” Taiyang said. “After he’s done, you can go. It seems like she’s doing okay.”

“That’s a relief.”

Weiss put her rapier away then sunk into the couch in the living room. The dog jumped onto the couch and curled up beside her. She patted its head. 

Mentally, she prepared herself by reviewing the things other Weiss had told her about her partner, as well as other Weiss’s personality. So, she should start the conversation off with some scolding, then pretend not to have been worried, then blush and admit she had been worried all along. And then, she ought to finish it all off with something like “I missed you, you stupid dolt!” What she needed to do was balance the appropriate levels of annoyance and fondness. Ruby Rose, having been this Weiss Schnee’s partner, would be harder to fool than the others. She would pose a challenge. But Weiss was confident she could do it.

Qrow came down, giving her a nod of acknowledgment, and Weiss went upstairs. She heard two voices coming in from Yang Xiao Long’s bedroom, one Yang, and the other presumably Ruby. It seemed like a private conversation, so Weiss decided to make the smart decision of eavesdropping further down the hallway as opposed to right outside the door.

Information about the destruction of the school. Blake Belladonna. Yang Xiao Long getting worked up and upset. Nothing big Weiss didn’t particularly already know.

“I love you,” she heard a girl say. Her voice sounded young, innocent, slightly pained. Then, the sound of footsteps. Weiss cleared her throat in preparation. Soon enough, she saw Ruby Rose emerge out of the room and into the hallway.

“Ruby!” Weiss said, advancing towards the other girl, throwing her hands up in the air with righteous emotion. “You absolute idiot! Do you have any idea how w-w….”

She stopped walking. Ruby Rose, mouth momentarily agape, quickly bridged the distance. “Weiss!” Ruby Rose said. “What are you doing here?”

“...Uh, yes. Of course I’m here. I was really worried about you, Ruby. I’m here because I have nowhere else to go and Taiyang was… Wait, no, sorry, I wasn’t worried about you.”

“You weren’t worried about me?”

“I was worried. But I also wasn’t. Why did you go and get yourself hurt? That was very very... irresponsible of you.”

Fuck! This was not going as planned! Every one of her normally easy to come by words felt thick on her tongue.

Ruby looked at her quizzically. Weiss hid her hands behind her back and fought the urge to retreat from Ruby’s gaze. What the fuck? How? Why was she having such a difficult time speaking to this should-have-been ordinary girl? What was this… feeling in her chest? This sudden tightening? Was it… love???

Was she, Weiss Schnee, in love??? At first sight? Immobilized by the mere sight of a pretty girl with pretty red-tipped dark hair? Were the other Weiss Schnee’s feelings somehow infecting her?

Haha. No. As if Weiss was capable of feeling love. But Weiss hadn’t known she could still do fear, either. 

It was probably just baseline instinct, baseline emotion, the parts of herself that despite everything that had happened still managed to remain. The tightening in her chest, the trembling in her fingers as she hid them behind her back, the flush of blood rising to her cheeks. A shot of pure adrenalin elongating her awareness. The visceral desire to turn tail and run.

Fucking silver eyes. Silver eyes? SILVER?? Ruby said something else and Weiss nodded along pleasantly and responded but Weiss couldn’t concentrate. Her mind was running a thousand leagues a minute. She had wondered why the reports said Cinder Fall had retreated from Beacon instead of consolidating her victory and why there had been rumors of a giant Grimm frozen at the top of the school, and now she knew. Ruby Rose had goddamn silver eyes and the other Weiss Schnee hadn’t known the importance of fucking telling that to her. No one had fucking told her.

Weiss had been slacking off. She could’ve figured this piece of information out without needing to see it firsthand, smacked dab right in front of her face. She could’ve looked up a photo. Could’ve asked the other Weiss for more information. She had gotten complacent, just like Cinder, apparently. Ozpin must’ve been hiding Ruby Rose. His secret weapon, masquerading as a normal girl, the real parasite in plain view.

“Are you okay?” Ruby said, concerned. She reached for Weiss. “You’re breathing kind of fast.”

“I’m just really happy to see you’re alright,” Weiss managed, strained, and took a step back. It would probably be her first lie of many, dealing with Ruby Rose. “Really really happy.”

“I heard from Yang and Uncle Qrow about your dad,” Ruby said. “I’m sorry you guys had that big fight. He sounds like a huge jerk.”

“Yes. My father. He is a jerk,” Weiss said automatically. “Didn’t they tell you I had moved here, too?” On the inside, though, Weiss moaned. Her father, why had Ruby Rose felt the need to bring up her father, all while staring at her with those eager silver eyes of her, as if the last person Weiss wanted to think about wasn’t Jacques Schnee, what he had done to her, silver eyes. A memory surfaced to the forefront of her mind. Weiss thought,  _ she was fucking over this, this was an entire other world, she wasn’t there, she wasn’t, no one could get to her— _

_ Stop. What are you doing? _

_ Stop. _

_ Stop. _

_ Why not just… stop? _

Weiss stopped herself. She grabbed that cold, dead part inside of herself and shook it hard. She felt it wake up, sluggishly at first, then becoming more alert. She asked it to do its job which it normally was so good at doing. There was no more flush of blood, no trembling, no tightening in her chest as a numbing coldness spread through her body with a relieving speed. Weiss straightened. Ruby Rose blinked, almost as if she sensed the difference, cutting herself off midramble.

Hm. Ruby Rose. Once again, Weiss regarded this girl who was supposed to be her partner. Once again, she took in the silver eyes. Weiss could work with this. She could. Even if what stood before her was a monster, it wore the face of a girl, and she only had to focus on that particular detail.

Weiss had let the memory of Ilia fade away on its own. This memory now she took under the heel of her foot and ground it to pieces, to shards of bone, burying it in the sand. Then, she smiled the perfect, practiced smile of one who is in absolute control, the smile of the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company.

“I missed you,” she said. “Dolt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruby joins the plot, things are going well, both Weisses doing just peachy
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

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WE ALL CALLED IT, WEISS SCHNEE IS AN EVIL BITCH

This is why Wind Path is the best city 

View thread: WE ALL CALLED IT, WEISS SCHNEE IS AN EVIL BITCH

fifty2_bricKs: Lmao who would’ve thought!! Listen up folks, this thread is devoted to the latest hot takes on our favorite dirty money-grubbing gremlin!! For those who are currently living under a rock and are NOT aware of what I’m talking about this time, please see any of the following links:

_SDC CEO Implicated in Terrorist Plot (Vale News Network)_

_Irrefutable Evidence Links Weiss Schnee with Underground Crime Network Operating in Vale (Remnant International Times)_

_SDC Share Price Plummets Following Latest Scandal, Investors Shaken (Atlas Broadcast Channel)_

_Who is Cinder Fall and what does she have to do with Weiss Schnee? (Chariot Post)_

_Anonymous Data Leak Online Reveals Shocking Intel (the SDC, White Fang, Roman Torchwick, and more) (ValeToday)_

For a list of all the original documents and files that were released in the leak, please see archive at link.

For information on the numerous other lovely things the gremlin has gotten herself involved in since becoming SDC CEO, please see the following threads:

Jacques Schnee mysterious illness (likely assassination attempt)

SDC corporate tax evasion scandal

Mantle mining scandal

Foundation of Higher Arts charity fraud

Paladin Technologies acquisition and merger antitrust controversy

Hard light Dust price gouging controversy

SDC work environment allegations

Atlesian military contract bid rigging

Marigold family allegations

beowoof: the gremlin strikes again!! but holy fuck seriously what is this escalation?? we went from corporate shenanigans to straight up terrorism??

glassgarden: Tbh I’m not surprised. We all know there was something fishy going on with what happened to Jacques Schnee last year. It’s not that drastic if you think about it as going from attempted murder to conspiracy to commit mass murder.

glassgarden: Okay now that I reread what I’ve written I take it back maybe it is a little drastic. The two are not entirely comparable.

sootlord: hey @fifty2_bricKs you forgot to include the exposé on the Faunus labor conditions that was released last spring in the scandals list

jurgamander65: stfu sootlord no one cares

fifty2_bricKs: @sootlord Scroll up that’s one of the things that was covered in the Mantle mining scandal thread

sootlord: yeah but wasn’t there a thread specifically devoted to the exposé too...? idk haven’t been on for a while

beowoof: eh i think mods took that down for redundancy

jurgamander65: [removed] _*user received a warning for this comment*_

sootlord: :/ dude really? 

beowoof: LMAOOOO HE SAID IT NOT ME

sootlord: [removed] _*user received a warning for this comment*_

llk-born: can we not do this here too guys take it to the faunus rights thread

llk-born: i just want to get back to the topic at hand, shit-talking the gremlin >:)))

llk-born: but srsly though when did she become a terrorist? o.O

llk-born: the way rich people minds works… incomprehensible

fifty2_bricKs: You know what boys, all things considered, I’m feeling not too shabby about the ‘incident’ this time! This time is the time I think they’ll finally lock her up real tight!

glassgarden: But that’s what we thought all the other times, too…

fifty2_bricKs: For once Irondaddy has actually issued a statement, so :O

fifty2_bricKs: And the Vale high council too lol but who cares about them

beowoof: oh snap the gremlin is finally going to get it Irondaddy too powerful

llk-born: we love the Irondaddy

3ddl3blu3: If that’s finally the case, then thank the gods. I am so ready to be finished with her shit. Weiss Schnee is a sociopath and a menace to society. I never want to see or hear her name anywhere again. Is it too much to hope the SDC implodes after this as well?

klanvas: ^^

Ilk-born: ^^^

cat_disco: ^^^^^^^

jurgamander65: ok wait weiss schnee is one thing but cmon the sdc hasnt done anything that bad like i know shes the president or whatever but still 

jurgamander65: and also ok no one actually died so i mean

klanvas: Dude are you fr rn

beowoof: get out gremlin apologists aren’t welcome here

jurgamander65: plus she is in the hospital too so you know shes hurt bad like you shouldnt attack people when theyre already hurt

jurgamander65: im just saying

sootlord: stfu jurgamander no one cares

glassgarden: Wait this is the first I’m hearing of this. Weiss Schnee is in the hospital?

fifty2_bricKs: Yup it looks she pissed off the wrong guy while being evil, got her ass destroyed, lemme try to find the source

beowoof: i thought she already left the hospital though so she can’t be hurt THAT bad

sootlord: yeah not definitely bad enough imo

llk-born: wouldn’t it be funny if the white fang guy had actually just lopped her head right off, like boom everyone's problems instantly solved, too bad that cinder chick stopped him before he could do it though look here link

_End of Page 1, 2, 3 … 8, 9, 10_

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Uploader: unknown

File type: .mov

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 2320

_Loud voices, three figures, the tallest of the three gesturing wildly._

_“What is this? It’s already one thing for the White Fang to be working with you humans, but a Schnee—!”_

“ _Adam Taurus, was it? I would say it’s a pleasure, but honestly, you’ve caused me a lot of headaches.”_

_“Settle down, the both of you. Mr. Taurus, I think you will find that the three of us have a lot more in common than one might initially believe, Miss Schnee included. We all desire a… few particular things.”_

_The tall figure snarled._

_“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you on the spot!”_

_“Go ahead, if you want, but it would accomplish nothing in the grand scheme of things. Besides, you angry little bitch, you’re in my debt.”_

_A horrific snarl. “Do not test my—”_

_“I’ve already given you three entire free trainloads of Dust. What? You really think our security is that lax? You think I didn’t know_ you _were responsible for the robberies? I had to cover that all up for you, all of you and your stupid messes, as a token of my measly goodwill once I knew you were Cinder’s so called ally. The least thing you could do is appreciate me for what I’ve done. You should kiss my shoes in gratitude.”_

_The sound of a sword being drawn, a gleam of red, someone scoffing. “Like you have the guts.” Then, a burst of bright orange flame and a sharply worded command. “Enough! I said to settle down! Control your mouth, Weiss.” The sword sheathing._

_A moment of silence. The burst of orange flame faded._

_“As amusing as this is, we’re burning time. Mr. Taurus. We talked about this before. You and the White Fang will provide the men for the Mountain Glenn project as we had agreed. Miss Schnee will provide any additional equipment and resources as well as distracting the Vale Council from investigating the mountain. As I said, we all desire a few particular things. Instead of squabbling amongst each other like children, let us work together. We are stronger when united. We can accomplish even the impossible.”_

_“...Speeches like that really don’t suit you, Cinder. Yes, yes, you don’t have to give me that look, I’ll shut up now. I know you’ll kill me someday.”_

_Static._

File type: .jpg

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0821, 0032

_Two photographs, side by side. The first photo contains a woman with dark long hair and burning orange eyes. She is dressed in a Beacon academy uniform, flanked by a dark-skinned girl with green hair and a tall pale boy with silver hair. They are seen through the window of what appears to be a dormitory. The second photo contains what appears to be the same dark-haired woman, but she is dressed in a stealth suit and a domino mask and running along a rooftop. Her figure is a little blurry from the distance._

Caption: featured is Cinder Fall, big bad extraordinaire; background unknown, likely ‘Fall’ is a fake last name, humorous considering that she’s [redacted]

File type: .jpg

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0912

_Two pictures, side by side. The first photo contains the dark-skinned green-haired girl and tall silver-haired boy from before. They are seemingly engrossed in conversation with an elderly shopkeep in front of a ‘From Dust til Dawn’ storefront. In the second photo the green-haired girl and silver-haired boy can be seen crossing a busy street. Their destination appears to be a large storefront with the name ‘Tukson’s Book Trade’._

Caption: owner of the store ‘Tukson’s Book Trade’ was discovered dead shortly afterwards; the two jaywalkers are lackeys of Cinder Fall’s by the names of Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black; could be worth it to approach/coerce/threaten Mercury Black to find out where his father is hiding; Marcus Black gone underground since XX/XX/XXX

File type: .data

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0000

Description: Vytal Tournament/Amity Colosseum match-rigging program. This program allows the user the choice of combatants of any given round in the Amity Colosseum as well as the arena biomes. The program is derived from classified files stolen from [redacted].

File type: .txt

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0000

Remember to have dr. p modify bq virus

File type: .txt

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0000

Look into m industries, dr. m, and dr. aw; plausible connection to strange grimm sightings in anima; dr. aw connection to [redacted]

File type: .mov

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 1720

_Indistinguishable conversation. Two figures seated around a table, talking in mostly low voices._

_“Yeah, I don’t know. If Ironwood shows up, just blast him or something. Isn’t that all that you’re good for— the blasting? Oh, what? My sister? Eh. No, no, do it. Go right for it. Whatever you need. Yeah. Yeah. I recommend you aim for the head.”_

_“If you want to call being honest about the way I feel ‘heartless’, sure. I thought you of all people would understand not being afraid to speak the truth. We have no feelings of lost love.”_

File type: .data

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0000

Description: A collection of White Fang coordinates on Solitas continent. Majority of movements occurring in the southeast quadrant, Mountain Glenn, as per Cinder Fall’s direction. A select number of other bases. Adam Taurus located at [coordinates]. Other movements in the far west, seemingly unrelated to Adam Taurus’s group. 

File type: .aud

Date: XX/XX/XXX

Timestamp: 0455

_“...non negotiable… how… contract… I said…!”_

_“...and gentlemen… students… my best…. Unfortunately...”_

_“...machine… Fang… yes… delivered… her…”_

_“...CCT… girl… Ozpin… red…”_

_“...control… Grimm… panic...”_

_“...god… Nikos…. maiden…. where…”_

_“...I… her… myself....”_

“Ruby?”

++

“Ruby?”

Ruby heard her name being called. She looked up from her scroll to see that it was Blake, a book tucked under her elbow.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past twenty seconds now,” Blake said, expression vaguely amused. “You okay?”

“Oh, heh, my bad,” Ruby said. She gave one last glance at her scroll then closed out of the window and tucked it into her pocket. She bounced to her feet. “Just doing some light… reading. Are you ready to go to class?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” Blake chuckled. She went to the corner of the room, where she put her book away on a shelf. “But yes, I’m ready.”

“Where’s Yang?”

“Still moping in the bathroom.”

From said bathroom came a muffled call. “Hey, I resent that! I’m not moping!”

Blake called back, “Then hurry up! We’re going to be late!” To Ruby, in a low conspiratorial voice, she said, “I need your help with something.”

“Ooo, is it a secret?” Ruby beamed. She leaned in. “You can tell me. What is it?”

“I was thinking it would be a good idea for us to get Yang a gift,” Blake explained. “Nothing too big or flashy, something smaller, just to show her that we care.”

“Yes, that’s a great idea!” Ruby immediately said, nodding vigorously. “Of course we should do it!” Then, at Blake’s shushing gesture, she whispered, “It’s because she _is_ moping, isn’t it?”

“I think she’s more upset than she lets on about losing the match to Pyrrha,” Blake said, gently. “After what happened that round with Mercury, she really wanted to come back and win the tournament. She’s just too headstrong to admit it.”

“Yeah, it’s just too bad that Pyrrha is Pyrrha,” Ruby said, understandingly. She cocked her head then said, “So what should we get her?”

“I thought you might have an idea, which is why I asked you for help.”

“Of course I have ideas! But it’s better to get it just right…” Ruby trailed off, giving the question some thought. While Yang would definitely appreciate any gift that they would get for her, like Ruby had just told Blake, it was best to get it just right. Something that Yang would love which would also suit the occasion.

“Let’s think on it for a bit,” Blake said. “No rush.”

Yang came out of the bathroom and joined her and Blake. The three of them headed to class together, making pleasant small talk along the way. As Ruby sat there at her desk in the classroom, listening to Port drone on and on in another one of his infamously boring stories, she found her thoughts invariably drifting off.

Mostly, she thought of the things she had learned from her Scroll. Remnant Online wasn’t a forum she visited often, and when she did, it was usually to geek out on the weapons threads. But this morning, she had visited the site purely to see what information she could find on Weiss Schnee. Soon after that, she had found herself being redirected from Remnant Online to another site. In that regard, the finding of information, she had not been unsuccessful.

Ruby sighed.

_“You’re Ruby Rose, right?”_

_Stopping in her perusal of the items in the stall, Ruby turned around to see a white-haired girl with blue eyes standing before her. The girl wore a hesitant smile that somewhat softened the sharp angles of her face._

_“Yes, that’s me, Ruby Rose speaking!” Ruby said._

_“It’s nice to finally meet you,” the girl said. “I’ve been following all of your team’s matches since the start of the tournament. Even though you didn’t win, I just wanted to let you know that I think your team still did a wonderful job.”_

_“Thanks, that’s really nice of you to say!” Ruby said, blushing a little from the praise. The finals match had just ended a little under an hour ago. “You look a bit familiar. Did you also participate in the tournament?”_

_“In a manner of speaking,” the girl said. She shot a glance around at her surroundings, as if nervous, which puzzled Ruby, since they were only on the fairgrounds. Now that the tournament and festival was over, people were closing up and clearing out, so it was somewhat emptier compared to how it had been before. “My team didn’t do as well, however.”_

_“That’s still cool! Which school are you from?”_

_“Atlas Academy,” the girl said. “Is… it alright if I ask you a bit of a strange question?”_

_“Sure.”_

_“Does your team really only have three members? I thought it was standard practice to assign all students at Beacon a partner?”_

_“Ah, yeah, I was supposed to get a partner, too,” Ruby rubbed the back of her head. “Long story short, we had an odd number of students at initiation, and basically I was the one who got left out. No big deal though! I fight pretty good just as well on my own!”_

_“You fight pretty good just as well on your own,” the girl repeated, letting out a laugh. Ruby mimed a few karate chops and the girl laughed again. “Oh, I can see that. From what I recall, you did a number on your opponents, too.”_

_Ruby smiled. “So… What’s your name?” she asked._

_“You can call me Weiss.”_

_“I like it! It sounds very elegant, princess-y,” Ruby said. “Very much an Atlas name.”_

_“What’s that supposed to mean?” Weiss said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”_

_“You know, like the vibe of it? No? Anyways, it makes sense to me! So, Weiss. Where’s the rest of your team?”_

_“To tell the truth, I may or may not have left them behind after the finals match,” Weiss said. “I… I just really wanted to talk to you, at least once.”_

_Weiss seemed to realize she had said something strange because she blushed and immediately backed away. Weiss was shorter than Ruby was, in flat sneakers. She was wearing pretty plain clothing, which stood out to Ruby because students at the academies were usually very personalized in the way they dressed. She also didn’t seem to have her weapon with her._

_“Anyways, thank you for talking to me and entertaining my question,” Weiss said. “I’ll go now. I don’t want to bother you. I wish you the best.”_

_“You’re not bothering me at all,” Ruby said, immediately. Something about the way Weiss had said ‘I wish you the best’, as if saying goodbye for good, made her feel odd. “Since you’re an exchange student, you’ll be going back to Atlas soon, right? I can show you around if you want. I mean, I’m pretty sure Yang and Blake basically ditched me to go on a date, so I have plenty of time to spare right now.”_

_“They’re seeing each other?” Weiss said. She sounded shocked._

_“Yeah,” Ruby said. She bounced on her feet, a little anxious. “Uh. Is that a problem?”_

_“No! Not at all. It’s just, um....” Weiss trailed off. It seemed like she didn’t know what expression she wanted to make at first, but she eventually settled on a nod and a smile. “Good for them. Really.”_

_“Yeah, they’re close. It’s the three person team thing I think. We got to know each other really well,” Ruby said. She bounced on her feet a little more. “So anyways. What do you say?”_

_“To what?”_

_“To me showing you around!” Ruby said. “Unless you don’t want to, of course, you’ve probably already spent a lot of time around the fairgrounds, and now that I think about it, you’ve probably seen most of Beacon, too, so I totally get if you don’t—”_

_“Ruby, I’d love to go with you,” Weiss interjected. “That sounds lovely.”_

_“Cool,” Ruby said. The way Weiss said her name made something in her tingle. “Cool, cool.”_

_They went around, checking out a lot of different stalls and attractions. Weiss seemed a little withdrawn and socially awkward at first but opened up pretty quickly after. She didn’t mind hearing Ruby ramble and responded to almost everything Ruby had to say. She was really listening, too, Ruby realized, and not just being polite._

_“That’s disgusting.”_

_“It’s just cotton candy,” Ruby said. “What, don’t they have cotton candy back in Atlas?”_

_“No,” Weiss said. “Well, maybe. Actually, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.”_

_She eyed the confection in Ruby’s hands with a healthy dose of suspicion. Ruby gave her a ‘go on, try it’ motion. To her surprise, Weiss went ahead and did, leaning her face in to take a small bite._

_“Too much sugar,” was the pronouncement accompanied by a wrinkle in the brow. “Of course you would like something like this.”_

_“I do like sweet things,” Ruby agreed. “Cake, cookies, all kinds of stuff! What do you like?”_

_Weiss seemed a little put out by the question. “Apples? Green apples?”_

_“Apples?” Ruby repeated, appalled. “Green apples?! That’s your favorite food?”_

_“I don’t know, it was the only thing that came to mind!”_

_Ruby tore through the cotton candy with speed after that. It was getting close to sunset and almost every place was boarded up. Realistically it was probably time for them to leave, too, to say goodbye, but Ruby found herself strangely reluctant to do so, dragging her feet, making excuses, and anyways Weiss hadn’t brought up the topic either. At last Ruby dragged them to what would probably be their final booth, a simple ring toss._

_“You haven’t played a single game yet!”_

_“I don’t have any money on me.”_

_“Don’t worry! If that was the problem this whole time, I would have just covered for you.”_

_“Ruby, it’s fine. You don’t have to.”_

_“But I want to.”_

_Ruby handed the vendor behind the booth the Lien. He counted it out and then slid the rings across the wooden surface of the booth. Weiss picked them up with notable reluctance._

_“This seems to be happening to me a lot lately,” Weiss said. “I apologize.”_

_“You’ll just owe me one,” Ruby dismissed. “You can pay me back next time.”_

_“Next time,” Weiss repeated, and Ruby faltered. Oh, right._

_“Whenever we see each other again then,” Ruby amended. “The next festival? Uh. In two years?”_

_“Right. Of course,” Weiss said. She paused. “Two years.”_

_Weiss turned toward the booth. She whipped the rings at the bottles in surprisingly sharp motions. All but the last one failed to land around their target, and the vendor handed Weiss a little keychain with a dolphin on it, her consolation prize. Weiss palmed the keychain in her hand with an unidentifiable emotion on her face. She stared down at it._

_They stepped away from the booth. It was Ruby who broke the silence. “...We don’t have to be strangers for two years,” Ruby said. “You could give me your Scroll number? We could talk that way?”_

_It was Ruby's first time asking for anyone’s number in any respect. So Weiss was friendly and nice and really really pretty, and even if they had just met that day, so Ruby wanted to stay in touch. Was that so weird of her?_

_“I could give you my number,” Weiss said. “But I really… I really don’t think that’s something I should do.”_

_“Oh. I get it,” Ruby said. She nodded. It hurt a bit, but she did get it. Maybe she had misunderstood things? “It’s okay. No biggie.”_

_“No, listen, it’s not that I don’t want to stay in touch. I enjoyed spending time with you, I did,” Weiss said. Then, she took a sudden, deep breath. “Ruby,” she said. “The thing is, I haven’t been entirely honest with you. I’m not who you think I am.”_

_“What do you mean?” Ruby found herself straightening a little bit. “Are you not actually like a student or something?”_

_“I want to explain. Truly. But it’s just so…” Weiss grimaced, shaking her head. “I don’t know if I can. I don’t know where to even start. I—”_

_“Hey, Ruby!” A loud, familiar voice suddenly cut Weiss off. “You’re still here?”_

In the present, a hand waved in front of Ruby’s face, jarring her out of her thoughts. The person who had waved the hand was none other than Yang, the same person as the one who had interrupted Weiss in Ruby’s memory. Yang was wearing a somewhat concerned expression on her face. Besides Yang, Blake’s expression was slightly more appraising.

“You alright, Rubes?” Yang said. “Class ended minutes ago.”

“Yup, I’m fine!” Ruby said. She got to her feet. “Sorry, i was just thinking about uh, things, you know.”

“What things?” Blake joined the conversation.

Ruby hesitated, then answered honestly, “That girl I met at the Vytal Festival. Weiss.”

The reaction towards the name was immediate and palpable. Negative. “Ruby,” Blake frowned, crossing her arms. “I know you like to think the best about people. But as for a person like her, Weiss Schnee— it’s really just the best to stay as far away from her as much as possible. Even before the headlines, the recent news, she was already notorious for being involved in a lot of… let’s just call them _morally gray_ activities.”

“She worked with Cinder Fall, Mercury’s boss,” Yang spat, voice angry. “She was the one who let them rig the matches and got me unfairly disqualified. Did you read the things that they had planned? They were going to try to kill so many innocent people!"

“I know!” Ruby said. “At the time, I didn’t realize who she was. But now I do. I looked into her. I _know_.”

And it wasn’t just those things Yang had brought up, too, but so many others. Mountain Glenn, the breach, Roman Torchwick. The White Fang. People who Ruby had fought against, real criminals, real villains. Every single one of them had ties that led back to Weiss Schnee, the girl who had laughed when Ruby said that she fought good.

 _“What are_ you _doing here?” Blake hissed._

_“Hey!” Yang snapped. “Get away from my sister!”_

_“Blake? Yang?” Ruby looked between the two of her teammates, confused. She had been pushed away from her new friend and now Blake and Yang were standing in front of her, protectively. “What’s going on?"_

_“Ruby, do you have any idea who that is? That’s_ Weiss Schnee _!”_

_At Blake and Yang’s shouting, Weiss had backed away. There was clear hurt in her eyes as her gaze flitted between the two, and the way she held her body was of a person who was expecting to be hurt even further. Ruby looked at Weiss, not entirely understanding. Now that she really thought about it, the name was vaguely familiar, yes, but still it didn’t mean much to her._

_“Weiss Schnee? As in, that Weiss Schnee?”_

_“What’s she doing here? I thought she was supposed to be locked up!”_

_“Look! It’s really her!”_

_In no time at all a sizable crowd had surrounded the four of them. Ruby had no idea where all these people had suddenly come from in the seemingly empty fairgrounds. At the same time, the crowd maintained a healthy distance, as if not wanting to get involved too soon. They were like hyenas at a carcass, Ruby realized, spectating for only the moment but waiting for their turn to slip in and tear flesh with their teeth._

_Weiss, swallowing, a visible lump passing down her throat. Looking at Ruby with regret-filled eyes, she said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have talked to you.”_

_“Murderer!” someone yelled._

_“I hope you rot in prison!”_

_“Go to hell!”_

_Someone threw something then. It hit Weiss on the side of her shoulder and she flinched. Blake and Yang just stood there, not moving, watching Weiss with hard gazes, as Ruby continued to looked between all three of them, still not understanding. The crowd got more worked up. Something else was thrown. Two girls emerged from the crowd after that, pushing the others aside. Just as Blake and Yang stood protectively in front of Ruby, now the two girls stepped to stand protectively in front of Weiss._

_“You seem to be in a bit of a predicament, Boss,” Ruby heard one of the girls remark.  
_

_“So you were following me the whole time, were you?” Weiss murmured._

_“Had to make sure you were safe, didn't I?” the same girl replied, gaze fixing steadily in the team RBY’s direction. Her eyes met Ruby’s for a second and her expression twisted. “Let’s just get the hell out of here."  
_

_And then, like that, Weiss Schnee was gone._

Yang and Blake were still standing in front of her desk, waiting for Ruby.

“I was just thinking,” Ruby mumbled. “About how she seemed so nice. A good person. I really liked her a lot.”

“Not everyone is as they appear,” Blake said, her expression shifting to something closer to understanding. “People wear masks. They hide who they truly are.”

They went to their next class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After reading Worm fanfiction, I’ve always wanted to do something similar to those PHO Interlude things :p Hope the numerous italics in this chapter weren't too jarring...!


	7. Chapter 7

Weiss dreamt of her tenth birthday.

Her parents fighting. Shouting, yelling, screaming. Weiss staring down at the cake in front of her, determined to ignore it all.

_Just admit it! You did it for the money!_

_Fine! Is that what you want to hear? You’re right! I never loved you!_

Weiss blew out the candles. In the background, the screaming hit a fever pitch. Winter shooting to her feet and storming off. Whitley beginning to cry. 

This was a familiar dream.

Weiss eating the cake, alone.

This was a familiar dream.

Weiss going to sleep, alone.

This was a familiar dream.

The next morning, Weiss snuck into her mother’s study. Her mother was passed out on the desk, head between her arms, eyes closed. Weiss went up to Willow Schnee and shook her arm.

This was a—

_Oh._

“Mom?” Weiss whispered. “Wake up.”

Willow Schnee did not respond. Weiss shook her arm again. Still, no response. She looked at her mother’s face. It was perfectly pale and still. Something clinked by Weiss’s foot. Weiss looked down. It was not a bottle of wine but a container emptied of its pills. Weiss picked it up, then looked at her mother again.

When had she stopped breathing?

Weiss shot up from her bed with a gasp. She could hear the question echoing around her head like a funeral dirge. _When had she stopped breathing? When? When? When?_ What a horrible, awful dream. It had felt so real. So familiar. Up until the very last second, it had replayed in her head like nothing more than an old memory.

An old memory...

Just as horrible and awful as the dream had been, Weiss suddenly had a horrible, awful thought to go with it. She rolled over, fumbled for her Scroll on the night desk. Picked it up. The glowing display read 0420. She typed her mother’s name into the search bar and hit enter.

A number of results:

_Deceased._

_Overdose._

_Suicide._

“Oh, gods,” Weiss said. She held her head. She wanted to throw up. “It wasn’t just a dream, was it?”

She took a cold shower then stood in front of the mirror, naked. She waited for a long time, just looking at her face, this face, which told her nothing.

Cold, dead eyes, like her father’s.

++

By 8 o’clock Weiss had only thought about her mother two more times. About Ruby, she had allowed herself a little more leeway, and given her about one and a half times that amount worth of thought. She entered the kitchen to the smell of burning pancakes.

Penny stood there sheepishly in a pink apron, holding a pan in her hand. Weiss saw that the pancakes weren’t just burning, they were on fire. Smoke rose toward the ceiling.

“Oops!” Penny said. “No worries, Miss Schnee! I got this!”

The fire alarm went off. There was a loud curse and then a distinct thump. Ilia in the living room, falling off the couch and onto the ground in a tangle of clothes and cushions. 

Weiss wanted badly to forget this morning. She wanted badly to forget a lot of other things, too.

Weiss glanced at the clock and said, “Gray is going to be here in thirty minutes.”

“I got this,” Penny affirmed, then left the room.

Ten minutes later, the fire alarm had mysteriously turned off and Weiss sat at the kitchen table with a plate of unidentifiable char in front of her. She poked at the plate with the fork, then looked up. Penny was smiling at her expectantly.

She took a bite. She grabbed the nearby glass that Penny had prepared for her and took a swig. It was milk.

Milk made her think of cookies and then of Ruby. “It’s not bad,” Weiss said, though if Ren was here, he would probably have an aneurysm. 

“Let me try some of that,” Ilia said from behind her, hair still mussed from sleep. She took a bite. “Yeah. Not bad. Hm.”

Weiss couldn’t tell if Ilia was joking or not. Ilia sat at the spot in the table opposite hers as Penny set a plate of char in front of her, too. She dug in with a relish.

“Nice job not burning down the apartment, contrary to my expectations,” Ilia nodded to Penny.

“I’ve been practicing!” Penny said. “I had a lot of leisurely time in Atlas.”

Ilia and Penny made small talk while Weiss stared at her plate. Domestic bliss, she thought, idly. Was this why the other Weiss had said it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be? Eventually, Ilia stood up and made her way to the fridge. She dug a package out and put something in the toaster.

Ding. Ilia came back and slid a new plate at Weiss. Now, freshly dethawed frozen waffles stared back at her.

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

“Frankly, I don’t care, Boss.”

“You’re not my babysitter. You’re just my bodyguard.”

“ _Eat_ ,” Ilia said.

Weiss ate.

When Gray came by, it was with more people than Weiss was used to seeing. “It’s unfortunate that one of the conditions of your bail turned out to be house arrest,” the lawyer said. “I know you probably don’t like to hear this, Miss Schnee, but you have a lot of urgent work to catch up on. These are some of the company executives based in Vale.”

“Who are all of you again?” Weiss stared blankly at the men.

It was apparently not out of the ordinary for other Weiss to ask such blunt questions because one by one, they complied and introduced themselves and their roles in the SDC. They all postured this way and that, speaking very kindly to her. They presented her with a thick stack of paperwork.

Still at the kitchen table, Weiss picked up a fountain pen. Then she set it back down. The men were all just standing there, waiting for her to begin. Were they going to be standing there the entire time? “When I’m in prison,” Weiss said. “I’m not going to have to do any of this, too, will I?”

A noticeable pause. “Miss Schnee—”

“Great. That’s what I thought. So, you know what, you all can take the day off. Relax. Enjoy the sunshine. You as well, Gray. What I say extends to you.”

“Miss—”

“I know what I said. It wasn’t a suggestion, so I suppose I’ll rephrase. If you can’t do your stupid jobs without me watching over you, then you deserve to be fired. Get out.”

No one moved.

Weiss stood up and slammed her palm into the table. “Did you hear me? Are you deaf? I told you all to get out!”

After they had gone, even Gray, who had shot her a lingering look as he had exited the apartment, Ilia said, quietly, “Boss.”

Weiss snarled. “What?”

She pointed at the table. Weiss looked down. Where her hand had struck, the wood had been cracked cleanly in two.

Aura. Right. She was not supposed to have that. Weiss sat down. She had a raging headache. She squeezed her eyes shut. Inhaled then exhaled.

“Do you want us to give you some space?” Penny asked, timidly.

“Please,” Weiss said.

++

At 12 o’clock, Weiss was staring out the window in the living room, watching the red autumn leaves as they blew past. She wondered if it would snow soon.

Soon enough, she became aware of someone sitting down beside her on the couch. Not long after she felt something draping over her shoulders. She felt the blanket with her fingers and turned her head. It was Penny.

“I thought you might be cold,” Penny said.

“It’s warm in here,” Weiss said. “With the heater.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Penny said, sounding all too apologetic. “I don’t really feel temperature the way other people do.”

“It’s fine. I appreciate the gesture.”

“Are you okay, Miss Schnee?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m just…” Weiss put the heel of her palms into her eyes to stave off the sudden inexplicable burning. “I’m just a little more tired than usual, I guess. I don’t mean it if I’ve been difficult. I’m sorry.”

There was a moment of silence. She could sense Penny reaching for her, then withdrawing a second later, thinking better of it.

“Can you do me a favor?” Weiss said.

“Of course, Miss Schnee,” Penny said.

“There’s this team that attends Beacon Academy,” Weiss said. “Team RBY. The leader is a girl called Ruby Rose. Funny, isn’t it, how the two are pronounced the same? Anyways, can you find her and give this to her?”

She held out the dolphin keychain from the fairgrounds. Penny took it gingerly.

“Is there something I should say to her?”

“No. No, that’s fine,” Weiss said. She just needed to stop thinking of Ruby. “If you could just find her and give it to her, it’ll be enough.”

“Okay,” Penny said. “I can do that.” 

Hesitantly, Penny left.

++

At 2 o’clock, the doorbell rang, and Weiss ignored it. She was reading the coffee table book, a rather quaint treatise on the subjectivity of morality or something inane like that. The doorbell rang again and Ilia, from the other side of the room, stood up.

“You didn’t have any other meetings today, did you, Boss?”

“No. And even if I did—“

“You want me to tell them you’re not interested?”

“Yes, please.”

Ilia nodded in satisfaction. “Great. Give me a moment.”

Weiss heard the door open. The conversation started low then quickly picked up in volume. She tried her best to focus on the book but it was a lost cause.

“Your ‘boss’ will want to hear us out. Trust me. Hey, Ice Queen! You in there? Tell your little friend here to back off!”

It took a moment for Weiss to place the voice, but when she did, she closed the book with a snap of the spine. She stood up and went to the door, opened halfway, Ilia using her body to physically block the doorway, a huge scowl on her face.

“...Qrow Branwen,” Weiss recognized the scruffy-looking man on the other side of the door.

“Miss Schnee,” and that was Ozpin, standing next to Qrow, looking as unruffled and calm as ever. “May we come in?”

In the living room, Weiss pointed at the couch, indicating that the two men should sit there. For herself, she tried to drag the armchair from the corner of the room but got tired halfway, so Ilia had to finish moving it for her. Now they sat facing each other, across the coffee table.

“You’re looking well, Miss Schnee,” Ozpin said, mildly. “I’m happy to see that you’ve recovered so thoroughly considering the extent of your injuries the last time we met.”

“Good doctors and painkillers,” Weiss replied. “Is there something I can help you with? Why are you here?”

“A little privacy wouldn’t hurt,” Qrow said, casting a meaningful glance at Ilia, who was standing besides Weiss, arms crossed. “Do you mind?”

Weiss gave Ilia an apologetic shrug. Ilia frowned and said, “I’ll be in the hallway.” The three of them remaining in the room watched the Faunus leave, the door clicking shut behind her.

“So, to get right down to it, we’re here to offer you a plea deal,” Qrow said. “We hope that given you’ve had some time to rest, your memory might be a little clearer.”

“The court date is in a week,” Weiss said, flatly. “If you’re talking about a plea deal, take it up with my lawyers.”

“This arrangement would be, shall we say, extra-judicial,” Ozpin said. 

“Illegal,” Weiss summarized.

“Bending the rules,” Ozpin corrected.

“You know you’re looking at least forty years,” Qrow said. “The Kingdom of Vale doesn’t take too kindly to conspiracy to commit terrorism and treason.”

Weiss’s fists clenched. “I’m not being charged with treason. That’s ridiculous. I’m not even a citizen of Vale.”

“You’re not a citizen of any Kingdom anymore. Atlas officially revoked your citizenship today. As a stateless person, per Vale’s code of law, you would be bound by the same expectations of loyalty and lawfulness as a Valean citizen, except with none of the rights. That means you can be charged with treason.”

From behind his back Qrow took out an official looking document and slid it across the table to her. Weiss read it over, disbelieving. At the bottom, she saw that it was signed off by one General Ironwood. 

Atlesian citizenship could only be revoked in the most extraordinary of circumstances and had to be approved by the Atlas High Council. Weiss suddenly remembered that General Ironwood held two council seats. An entirely sour taste filled her mouth. 

“This is dirty,” she spat, shoving the paper back to the other side. “Are you going to tell me I can’t have my lawyers now either?”

“That’s actually not a bad idea. Are we allowed to do that?” Qrow glanced at Ozpin. Ozpin didn’t say anything. “Well, we’ll do some research and depending on what happens today, we’ll get back to you on the matter.”

“Are you threatening me?” Weiss said. “Why? My life is already ruined. It’s over, no thanks to you. And now you come in here and expect me to what? Roll over for you like a dog? If that’s the case, you can go fuck yourselves.”

Never in her life had Weiss imagined she would end up in this position, telling the Headmaster of Beacon to go fuck himself. Yet there she was, telling him anyways. Weiss had once respected Ozpin. There was a reason she had chosen Beacon over all other combat academies. Now, all she felt for him was a lingering sense of anger and disdain. Regardless of the things he may have thought she had done, she was right. This was dirty. That law they were citing should not have existed. And she had no doubt in her mind that it was Ozpin who had come up with this idea, too. Qrow seemed too hotheaded, too brainless.

“Ten years instead of forty,” Ozpin said. “In exchange for you admitting your guilt and telling us everything you know about Cinder Fall, the maidens, and Salem’s plans.”

There was a moment of significant silence. Weiss paused. Like with Gray and the SDC executives from earlier, she was severely tempted to tell Ozpin and Qrow to go take a hike.

Still, though, as the silence stretched on, Weiss felt the anger go out of her like air from a deflating balloon. Forty years, she repeated numbly to herself. _Forty years._ Sure, her looming sentence had been on her mind like a crushing weight this entire time. Something she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. But there was nothing like a good solid number, _forty years_ , to really consolidate it for her, to really make her turn and face the music.

She was 18. Forty years might as well have been a life sentence.

“...How about five?” Weiss said.

“Eight,” Ozpin said.

Weiss stood up. She checked the time. It was a bit too early for her arranged meeting with the other Weiss Schnee but she had to try it now. “Excuse me,” she said, abruptly. “I need to think this over a little by myself.”

“Oh, take all the time you need,” Qrow snorted. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

She passed Ilia in the hallway, who got up from where she was leaning against the wall the moment she saw Weiss exit the living room. “Make sure neither of them follow me,” Weiss ordered. 

“Sure thing,” Ilia nodded. “Do I need to go in there and crack some heads?”

The thought of Ilia trying to fight back against two professional Huntsmen on her own, one of which was the Headmaster of Beacon no less, was positively absurd. But Ilia’s expression was one hundred percent dead serious. She would try to do it if Weiss told her to, Weiss realized. Even if she was still upset at Weiss, whatever the tension that remained there, lingering between the two of them, Ilia would do it.

In the bathroom, Weiss rapped her knuckles sharply against the mirror. In probably the first good stroke of fortune she had ever had since all this nonsense began, she saw the other Weiss Schnee immediately materialize in the reflection.

“I wasn’t late this time. Aren’t you proud of me?”

“I need you to tell me everything you know about Cinder Fall, the maidens, and Salem,” Weiss said.

Other Weiss cocked her head. “Alright. I see. We’re going into this conversation swords swinging. Good to see you're not depressed anymore, at least.”

“Do not deflect again. You will _tell me._ ”

“Every pertinent detail about Cinder Fall is already available. Everything I had on her was uploaded,” the other Weiss said. “Except for the things relating her to the maidens and Salem, of course. Which, yeah… Hm. I don’t particularly feel inclined to say a word regarding those matters.”

Weiss took a slow breath in order to control her blood pressure. She said, “Ozpin is here. Right now. He wants that information as part of an ‘extrajudicial’ deal that will drastically reduce my sentence.”

“Ozpin is there? Right now?” Other Weiss said. Her eyes narrowed with sharp, undisguised interest. A certain gleam appeared in them. “Interesting. What is this deal that he offered you?”

“Thirty-two years off my forty year sentence in exchange for an admission of guilt and the information.”

“The maidens and Salem…” Other Weiss mused. “I suppose I should warn you, if I haven’t already, that regardless of what happens, there’s a good chance you’ll end up dead within the year. Murdered. Another side-effect of being involved in all of this, unfortunately.”

“...Let’s take this one problem at a time. My problem first. I need to know what the maidens and Salem are in the first place.”

“You don’t need to know. Because alright, here’s the thing, I did some thinking and I figured out a method to keep you out of prison,” Other Weiss said. She gave Weiss a shit-eating grin. “It’s better than that stupid deal Ozpin’s offering. Completely legal, too. I think I’ll give it a seventy percent chance of ending in an acquittal of all of your charges.”

_“What?”_

Other Weiss continued, “But I’m not going to tell you what the method is. Not unless you accept my conditions first and do what I tell you to do.”

“We already made a deal to help each other before!”

“Yes, I know, and now we’re simply putting in some new terms.”

Weiss wanted to break something. She didn’t know how to feel. Excited? Furious? She hated being caught in this utterly powerless position in the first place, being lorded over by people only trying to manipulate her into doing what they wanted. It was the exact same feeling as being trapped in the Schnee Manor with her father. Still, at the same time, this was the one bright spot of hope that had appeared for her. She couldn’t simply turn it away.

The other Weiss Schnee laughed at the expression on her face.

“This is why you should have gone to university,” Other Weiss said. “Business negotiations 101.”

Weiss ground out, “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing big,” the other Weiss said, casually. “I just want you to ask Ozpin about silver-eyed warriors.”

“...Okay.”

“Yes. Silver-eyed warriors. Ask him for everything he knows about them. I know he’s going to play his cards close to the chest so I’m not expecting you to be able to extract every bit of information from him. See? I’m not an unreasonable person. If you can get him to explain one thing at least, like where their powers come from, then I’ll be satisfied. That will be enough. I’ll help save you.”

“But you’re not going to tell me a single thing about what you know about these so-called silver-eyed warriors, are you,” Weiss said. “You’re going to make me go into this blind.”

“Pretty much, yeah. Ozpin’s offer is insulting. You should let him know that.”

“So not only am I going in blind,” Weiss said, “by deliberately antagonizing Ozpin, you’re also telling me to put my trust in you and only you. I have to believe that you actually do have a way to pull through for me. That you won’t leave me to hang and dry the moment you get what you want.”

“I’ll be waiting right here, and when you’re done with your conversation Ozpin, you can come back, and I’ll tell you exactly how to extricate yourself from your predicament,” the other Weiss said. She gave a mock bow. “The decision is all yours, Weiss Schnee.”

++

Weiss went back to the living room and settled herself into her original seat. She cleared her throat and said, “Sorry for the wait.”

“So what’s your answer?” Qrow Branwen said. “Yes or no?”

“I don’t know what these maidens you’re talking about are,” Weiss said. “I don’t know who Salem is, either. Ozpin, your offer is insulting. So why don’t we talk about a different topic instead? Like, say, silver-eyed warriors?”

Before Weiss could so much as blink, Qrow was lunging over the table. His hands closed around the collar of her shirt as he yanked her in his direction.

“Qrow!” Ozpin warned.

“Touch my niece and I’ll skin you alive,” Qrow hissed. Now he was hauling her into the air. “I don’t know what game you’re fucking playing at, Schnee, but I’m _warning_ you right now.”

“I would never do anything to hurt Ruby or Yang,” Weiss shot back before her mouth could catch up with her brain. Her hands closed around Qrow’s wrists in a vain attempt to make him let go. “I don’t understand, what does this have to do with—”

“We know you were at the Vytal Festival, you were talking to Ruby,” Qrow said. “There were so many eyewitnesses. What is this? Another part of your twisted plot? I’m sick of your double-speak, fucking talk!”

He shook her then, rattled her hard. She wasn’t afraid of him hurting her seriously— not when Ozpin was still in the room— but as Ozpin did nothing, said nothing, a doubt began to creep into her mind. 

Wasn’t this supposed to be about getting answers from Ozpin? She glanced at the Beacon Headmaster. He was watching her very very carefully, mouth a thin line. A sudden thought occurred to her, so ridiculously obvious it could’ve smacked her in the face. _Ruby has silver eyes._ Was Ruby one of these supposed ‘silver-eyed warriors’ the other Weiss had been talking about?

With the way Qrow was handling her as if he wanted to kill her, the answer was clearly ‘yes’. Not for the first time, Weiss would have liked to be able to smash a fist into the face of the other Weiss Schnee. _She knew about Ruby! Of course she fucking knew and she told me to ask such a nonsensical question anyways! I can’t believe I actually listened to her!_

“Let go of me,” she demanded. She could feel her Semblance itching to come out, wanting to summon a glyph and put much-needed space between her and Qrow, and she could barely control the urge. “Let go of me now.”

“Yes, do that,” came another voice, and Weiss saw something like a long metal rope suddenly wrap around Qrow’s throat. The end of a whip, Weiss realized, Ilia’s weapon, the first time she had seen Ilia use it. “Drop her.”

Ilia’s gaze, behind Qrow, was cold and uncompromising. Qrow’s expression tightened with obvious discomfort but so too did his grip around Weiss’s shirt collar.

“Qrow, please,” Ozpin spoke at last. “Let Miss Schnee go.” And at that, Qrow finally did let her go.

On her feet again, Weiss stumbled several steps backwards so that she was standing shoulder to shoulder with her bodyguard. She fixed her shirt, cast a glance at Ilia. “You can let him go, too,” Weiss said. “Thank you.”

“What I should do is electrocute him,” Ilia scoffed. But she flicked her wrist and retracted the whip.

Qrow massaged his throat, glowering in their direction. One of Qrow’s arms started to reach for the sword strapped to his back, and Ilia tensed as did Weiss. Then Ozpin made a decisive ‘stop’ motion with his hand. A momentary lull descended over the four of them in the room, standing off, each waiting for another to make the next move.

“I can see we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Ozpin said. “We’ll take our leave now. It’s a pity we couldn’t reach a mutual understanding.”

“He attacked me first,” Weiss sneered. “When we were simply holding a civil conversation.”

“Miss Schnee,” Ozpin began. “What do you want to know about silver-eyed warriors, precisely?”

“...Where they came from. The origin of their powers.”

“Why?”

“Personal reasons.”

“If you’re not talking about Ruby Rose, could it be that you encountered someone you believe to have been a silver-eyed warrior in your past?”

 _I don’t know. I don’t fucking know! She doesn’t tell me anything!_ But Weiss couldn’t say that. She kept her expression stoic, unchanged. “That’s right,” she said. “And that’s why I approached Ruby at the fairgrounds at the Vytal Festival. I thought she could give me more information on the topic.”

“Ozpin,” and it was Qrow’s turn to give a warning. “You aren’t seriously going to tell her anything, are you?”

“Silver-eyed warriors are figures of myth and fairy tale, Miss Schnee,” Ozpin said. “Just as with the tale of two brothers. I wouldn’t concern yourself with the matter further. After all, you have much more pressing issues to deal with.”

When Ozpin and Qrow had left, the door to the apartment clicking behind them, Ilia turned to her. “So, what was that about?” she said.

“I have no idea,” Weiss responded, letting herself collapse onto the couch, and it was an honest response.

When she returned to the bathroom two minutes later, she found that the other Weiss was gone.

++

As he walked across the Beacon campus in the direction of his office, Ozpin considered the numerous things on his mind.

The recent events in Vale were sobering, to say the least. That such a horrible, devastating attack on Beacon had almost transpired under his watch— one that would have no doubt had widespread ramifications— was quite worrisome. Salem and her cabal had been much much closer than he had anticipated, had been practically underfoot. It was only by a miraculous stroke of luck that the attack had managed to be stopped.

Officially, no one knew who leaked the information. But it was fairly clear by the sheer amount of information which had become available that it couldn’t have been anyone other than a person who had been involved in the inner circles of the plan. Adam Taurus? Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black? Weiss Schnee and Cinder Fall themselves? Roman Torchwick had been locked up at the time so it couldn’t have been him. Neopolitan? 

Yet even if Ozpin managed to figure out who it had been, that still didn’t answer the question of why. Why would this person do it on the eve of the last phase of the plan, when everything they had worked for was about to come to fruition? Infighting? Cold feet? A last second order from above by Salem? It didn’t make sense.

Ozpin was just glad that his students, everyone, was still safe and unharmed. The transfer of the Fall Maiden’s powers from Amber to Pyrrha Nikos— given the extent of the things that had been revealed, it was probably the wisest decision to temporarily suspend the process. After all, Pyrrha Nikos had been one of the students, including Yang Xiao Long, whom had been referenced specifically as targets in Cinder Fall’s plans. Until things died down further, Ozpin didn’t want to do anything rash. 

_A miraculous stroke of luck,_ Ozpin mused. His mind flashed back to Weiss Schnee for a second. He hadn’t lived this long to still believe that good things really happened because he got lucky.

“ _I don’t know what these maidens you’re talking about are. I don’t know who Salem is, either.”_ When Weiss Schnee had said that, for a second, it had almost sounded like she’d been telling the truth. But then that follow-up question about silver-eyed warriors…

Ozpin had been sure that Weiss Schnee would take his offer. If she had been the one who had leaked the information, double-crossed Cinder, then she should have been perfectly willing to double cross the enemy for the second time. But she had rejected him, quite clearly and coldly at that. No matter how his mind turned, he couldn’t fathom it. The situation was supposed to have been set up perfectly for her to take his offer. 

Perhaps he should go speak with Winter Schnee. She had just arrived in Vale with the fleet of delayed Atlesian airships, and no one would understand the strange psychology of Weiss Schnee better than her estranged sister. From what he understood, they had been quite close when they were younger before they made their choices to walk different paths.

 _“Weiss always has something planned,”_ Ozpin remembered Winter describing her sister once. _“She’s slippery and like a snake, in that regard. She won’t commit to anything unless she knows there’s a favorable outcome.”_

Was this one of those ‘favorable outcomes’? Was there something about the situation he wasn't seeing?

Ozpin had almost reached the base of the tower to his office when he felt a peculiar prickling at the back of his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a girl was watching him. Ginger hair. Green eyes.

Ozpin turned, fully, and smiled. The girl, knowing she had been caught, approached him sheepishly.

“Miss Polendina,” he called out. “What are you doing here? I was wondering why you weren’t with Miss Schnee at her apartment.”

“She sent me here on an errand,” Penny explained. “I was supposed to deliver what I believe was something akin to a personal effect to a Ruby Rose.”

“That’s very interesting,” Ozpin said, blinking. New information to file away and examine later. “A personal effect for Miss Rose, you say? In any situation, Miss Schnee must trust you a lot more than she did before if she’s sending you out on such tasks.”

Penny gave a tiny nod, hands folded behind her back. He could practically feel the guilt and self-doubt roiling off the girl in waves. Considering the current situation, it was, he thought with a bit of pity, understandable.

“Do you want to speak with the General?” Ozpin asked, gently. “I believe he’s in my office right now. He was worried that he hadn’t heard any updates from you in a while.”

“Will this take long?” Penny said. “I really ought to be getting back soon. Miss Schnee will be expecting me.”

“No, I don’t think it’ll take very long,” Ozpin said. And then, in a softer voice, “Miss Polendina, just so you know, General Ironwood doesn’t blame you one iota for not knowing the things Miss Schnee was up to in Vale. It wasn’t what you were assigned at the SDC to look out for, after all. You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened.”

“I know,” Penny nodded, but a bit of the negative emotion lifted from her face regardless, replaced with relief. “Shall we go, then?”

The two of them went up the elevator to Ozpin’s office together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow Penny is so sneaky
> 
> Shout-out to Lord_Darth_Yoda for the comment inspiring the idea of a spy!


	8. Chapter 8

There came a growl from the edge of the clearing containing the pond and Weiss froze. That couldn’t be…? No, surely not. 

Weiss chanced a look then held in her sigh. It was a Grimm, alright. The creature reminded her of a large dog. A very large and black-furred dog with white bone jutting from its head and legs, slobberingly long teeth, and glowing red eyes.

What was it called? A Beowoof? No, that was a stupid name. It was a Beowolf.

Weiss looked back at the pond. The other Weiss Schnee had not yet returned from her conversation with Ozpin. Maybe if she just stayed still and pretended that she couldn’t see the Grimm it would—aaaand it was definitely charging at her now. Yup.

Wasn’t Patch supposed to be a safe and kid-friendly island?

Weiss scrambled to her feet and threw herself backwards. She would execute a backflip if she had the technical knowledge but as it was, she had not yet reached that level. Actually, she was very far from that level. She stumbled, nearly twisting her ankle, and the Beowolf crashed into the pond with an almighty roar, splashing water in every direction. Slowly, the Beowolf turned around to face her.

Weiss drew her rapier from her hip and raised it. She had learned that the name of the rapier was Myrtenaster, which was kind of a cool and elegant name with just the right amount of edgy. She was positive her stance was par excellence. Once upon a time, she had received some very basic training.

The Beowolf lunged. Weiss continued to hold the rapier out in mid-air, very stiffly. So, her stance was beautiful and perfect, but she still wasn’t entirely clear on the detailed semantics of like, stabbing and slashing with Myrtenaster. If she just held it at this angle, maybe the Grimm would impale itself on the blade and kill itself…?

“Weiss!”

Just as the Beowolf was about to reach her, a blur of red suddenly impacted the side of the Grimm, sending it staggering. A split second later, a giant scythe blade hooked itself on the underside of the Grimm’s throat and decapitated it in one fluid motion. The Beowolf’s body collapsed onto the ground and began to dissipate as Ruby Rose skidded to a stop in front of Weiss. 

“What were you doing?” Ruby Rose said, eyebrows furrowed, not remotely close to being out of breath. “Why are you just standing there?”

“I’m experimenting with a new technique,” Weiss said. She glanced at the corpse behind Ruby Rose, purposefully not meeting the other girl’s eyes. “You stole my kill.”

Ruby Rose raised an eyebrow and jammed the end of her scythe into the ground. “Ooookay,” she said, leaning on her weapon like it was a shepherd’s crook. “So is this where you’ve been hiding away whenever you leave the house?”

“Yes. It’s very peaceful. I like it.”

“You can lower Myrtenaster now. The Grimm’s gone! Unless... you actually want to spar with me or something?”

Ruby grinned at her. Weiss eyed Ruby’s scythe and thought that sparring would be a very capital “B” Bad Idea. Still, it was a bit of a struggle to get her sword arm to lower and to sheathe Myrtenaster. She felt so very defenseless and vulnerable, just standing in front of the other girl without any form of obvious protection.

Fuck it if she wasn’t going to admit Ruby Rose frightened her more than any Grimm could.

She felt her legs screaming at her to step back, to put some distance between them. Weiss accessed the cold place inside of her and told her legs to behave.

“I’ll pass on the sparring,” Weiss said. “I’m not feeling very up to it today.”

“Come on! How long has it been since we last practiced together?”

“Not that long?” 

“Uh, a very long time is the correct answer,” Ruby said. “Commmee on. Don’t tell me you’re scared?”

Yes. No. A little. Depends on if you’re going to blast me with your fucking silver eyes. “No, of course not,” Weiss scoffed. “But no means no. Some other time.”

“Fine,” Ruby said. “If that’s the situation, then I wanted to ask if you’re packed and ready for our trip to Vale!”

“Wait. That’s today?”

“I can’t believe you forgot!” Ruby threw her arms up in the air in exasperation. Actually, Weiss had not forgotten, but she had been kind of hoping that she could just weasel her way out of this one if she hoped it hard enough. “Don’t tell me you forgot why we’re going, too?"

“To meet Jaune, Nora, and Ren,” Weiss recited, dutifully. “We’re going to discuss our plans on going to Haven. But… Ruby. Isn’t it getting late? Why don’t we go tomorrow?”

“It’s only two-thirty,” Ruby said.

“By the time we get to Vale, it might be sunset. We won’t be able to catch the return airship.”

“So we’ll stay in the city overnight, duh!” Ruby said. At those words, Weiss felt a little bit of her nonexistent soul die. “It might be fun.”

“Ruby, the city’s not really in a ‘fun’ state right now. A quarter of it’s been levelled and everyone’s afraid of the next horrible thing that’s going to happen. The mood will be decidedly not fun.”

Ruby visibly deflated. “I mean, I know that, of course,” Ruby said, in a quieter voice. “I just promised Jaune that we would see them today. And I want to see with my own eyes that Team… that they’re okay. After Pyrrha. And everything else.”

Weiss eyed Ruby Rose up and down and sighed. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like there was a way out in this situation, not without either acting out of character or doing something that might damage the relationship. Which was undesirable, because Weiss’s current housing depended on her maintaining a good relationship with the Rose-Xiao Long family. 

“Let me just get a couple of my things,” Weiss said. “Then we can go.”

Ruby folded up her weapon into its compact form and stashed it somewhere in her cloak. Weiss cast a regretful look at the pond as the two of them left. Oh well. Guess she was breaking her word to the other Weiss Schnee about being right there when she returned from her conversation with Ozpin. It would be fine, though, probably. Hopefully, the other Weiss would understand.

++

Weiss was ten thousand percent  _ not  _ going to Haven. The only thing was she was trying to figure out the right way to break the news to Ruby Rose.

Being in Ruby’s vicinity in the Xiao Long family house was already incredibly taxing. Doing her best to avoid Ruby while at the same time interacting with her enough to not seem suspicious was taking more fortitude than trading snipes with Cinder ever had. Weiss was relieved that she had managed to snag the guest bedroom in the house, that Yang had been considerate enough to move back into her shared room with Ruby. There was no way Weiss would have been able to get any sleep if she was the one who had to share a room with Ruby. So an extended road trip with the silver-eyed girl? One that was going to take weeks, if not months? Come on. 

Realistically, did Weiss think Ruby Rose would try to kill her? Well, realistically, Weiss thought there was a non-negligible chance that Ruby Rose would try to kill her and a slightly less non-negligible chance that Ruby Rose would succeed in killing her. Those were odds she did not want to gamble with.

Was it so bad that all she wanted was Ruby Rose to stay as far away from her as mortally possible? That wasn’t so bad, right? If she had been in her other body with the advantages that came with it, she would’ve undoubtedly made arrangements to have Ruby Rose have… an accident. Or something like that. Maybe murder was excessive.

Gods. She hated silver eyes.

Also, Ruby’s personality was a little insufferable.

_ “Happy people are so disgusting,”  _ a particular green-haired henchman of Cinder’s had once remarked.  _ “Sometimes, I just want to shove them all off a cliff.”  _ Weiss could definitely sympathize with that sentiment.

The airship from Patch to Vale was close to empty. On the news cycle were the same gloomy things about the city, explaining how the situation had not changed. At their seats, after listening to the other girl chatter for an appropriately long time, Weiss felt Ruby Rose lean against her, head on her shoulder, and her entire neck erupted with goosebumps.

Woah woah woah. Not excluding the fact that Weiss had a Thing with people she didn’t like touching her, and surely the other Weiss Schnee also had a Thing—this was Ruby Rose who was touching her.

The silver-eyed girl was touching her!!

There was no way Ruby could have been sleepy already. It was 3 in the afternoon. Ruby Rose was doing this deliberately, to provoke her somehow.

To torture her.

Something inside her pointed out,  _ She thinks you’re the other Weiss Schnee. Torture is a possibility but it could also be that she is simply trying to display ‘affections’. The other Weiss Schnee is in love with Ruby Rose. Chance of feelings being reciprocated seem non— _

Ruby Rose shifted her position slightly and Weiss’s mouth went very very dry. Weiss tried to focus on anything else besides the weight on her shoulders, the strands of hair tickling her neck, Ruby Rose’s voice letting out a gentle hum.

“What do you think Blake is doing right now?” Ruby said. Her voice broke through the airship’s engine in the background.

“I don’t know,” Weiss responded, but she had to admit that she was starting to think the Belladonna girl had the right idea, bolting it from Vale. Weiss should’ve done the same. “Perhaps she went to Menagerie to visit her relatives.”

“She has family there?”

“Yes. Her last name is the same as a prominent family on the island.”

“I’m glad that you decided to stay, Weiss. The decision couldn’t have been easy. Why did you turn your dad away?”

Ruby Rose had shifted again. Her right hand was practically in Weiss’s lap now. Chance of Ruby Rose reciprocating the other Weiss Schnee’s feelings: significantly increased.

Chance of Weiss being able to fake her way through any kind of intimate relationship with Ruby Rose: physically, mentally, and emotionally zero.

“I’ve never liked my father,” Weiss said. “And although running the SDC comes with some definite advantages, it comes with certain burdens, too, and in the end, I don’t think it was ever something I truly wanted to do. If it’s about losing my inheritance, I don’t care. I’ll live. I will miss having unlimited money at my disposal, though."

“Your heart is beating a bit fast,” Ruby said and pushed up to look at her. “Are you okay?”

Proximity to silver eyes: incredibly proximate. Dangerously proximate. Her stress level spiked. Yes, she was in danger. “I need to use the washroom,” Weiss managed to say, and stood up abruptly.

++

It turned out that the other Weiss Schnee was quite cross with her.

“You miserable, lying cur,” other Weiss said, without preamble, loud enough that Weiss went to check the door to make sure it was locked.

“Look, I can explain,” Weiss said, once she had returned to the mirror. “It was out of my control, there was a Grimm—“

“Likely story.”

“It’s true.” 

“What are you doing with Ruby?

“What?”

“What are you doing with Ruby?” the other Weiss repeated, a hint of hard accusation in her voice now. The other Weiss shifted, crossed her arms. “You didn’t tell me she had woken up. I could see the two of you sitting together from the reflection of a window.”

“Wow, bit of a creeper much? We’re on an airship, going to Vale,” Weiss said. “Before you ask, no, I don’t have feelings for her. I’m not attracted to her. Calm down. I didn’t mention she had woken up because I didn’t think it was relevant.”

“Ruby has silver eyes.”

“...Yes. That is true. Thank you for telling me this information _ now  _ when I’m already well aware of the fact.”

“Does Ruby have something to do with why you made me ask Ozpin about silver-eyed warriors?”

The other Weiss glared at her. Weiss offered an unrevealing smile, unphased. Now that she was away from Ruby Rose, she felt herself returning to her more normal, in-control self. Cool, calm, composed. She was not shaking like a kitten in a rainstorm. Definitely not. The reason she was hiding her hands behind her back? Not because they were trembling or anything like that.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Weiss said. “It doesn’t matter. So, anyways, what did you learn?”

“Ozpin didn’t tell me anything about silver-eyed warriors,” the other Weiss said. “Nothing of note.”

“Nothing of note isn’t nothing. Word for word, what did he say?”

“That they’re figures of myth and fairy tale. He gave the tale of the two brothers as an example. Then he left. The conversation up to that point had not been especially productive.”

On the surface, Weiss was inclined to agree. If that was all Ozpin had said, then there didn’t seem to be anything of note. But Weiss knew that silver-eyed warriors weren’t just figures of myth and fairy tale like in Ozpin’s claim. They were very much real and Ozpin himself knew this to be true. Was Ozpin trying to hint at something, then? Was it a red herring or a meaningful connection? Was he trying to say that the powers of silver-eyed warriors could be explained by myths and fairy tales? 

Hm. Of course, Weiss had already explored all the stories surrounding silver eyes that she could find. The tale of the two brothers, however, was one she was not so familiar with...

“Good enough, I suppose,” Weiss shrugged. Despite being the one who had pushed the topic onto the other Weiss, she didn’t want to talk about it much further. She would digest the information in her own time. “I’m feeling generous, so I’ll let your failure slide.”

“I hope you’re not about to say something insidious,” the other Weiss said in a low, tense voice. “I don’t want to have made a mistake in trusting you.”

“I might be unlikeable but I keep my word,” Weiss said. “For your trial, ask your lawyer to motion to subpoena a truth-arbiter.” 

And there it was. The solution that Weiss had come up with. It was so clever in its simplicity, which she thought made it all the more beautiful. Sometimes, you didn’t want to go with the complicated, convoluted plot—not that she hadn’t enacted a fair share of those—when there was something straightforward available.

“A truth-arbiter?” other Weiss said.

“Each Kingdom has their own oddities in their codes of laws,” Weiss said. “Stayovers from earlier eras which don’t see much practice in modern day anymore but nonetheless still technically exist. In Vale, back in the days of the monarchy, there was a lot of worry about corruption, specifically that the King and nobles would exert their power and influence to put on kangaroo courts and show trials unfairly convicting their political enemies. Thus came the position of the truth-arbiter. A neutral third-party independent of the court, defense, and prosecution who cuts through the bullshit and determines absolutely whether or not the parties giving testimonies are telling the truth.”

“I don’t understand how this is supposed to help me,” the other Weiss said.

“Because you’re not really grasping the implications,” Weiss said. “If you did, you would be praising my genius. Unfortunately, since you remain kind of dumb, you’re not.”

“Fine. Okay. Suppose I have one of these truth-arbiters at the trial. Now they get to further confirm the facts of the situation and make it more obvious that I’m guilty. What then?”

“Truth-arbiters don’t confirm the quote unquote ‘facts of the situation’,” Weiss corrected. “They determine absolutely the authenticity of testimonies.” 

“And?”

“You’re the defendant. You can be called to give a testimony if you give up your right to not testify. And when you are called, all you have to do is tell the court the truth. When you’re being cross-examined, all you have to do is tell the court the truth. Consider the following. ‘Weiss Schnee. Did  _ you  _ conspire with Cinder Fall? Are  _ you  _ the one who committed those crimes? Are _ you  _ guilty or innocent? Answer the questions, yes, or no?’”

“I don’t understand.”

“ _ You,  _ Weiss. Use your big dumb brain.”

A look of comprehension began to dawn on the other Weiss’s face. “...No,” other Weiss said. “No, I’m not guilty. Because I’m not the one who did those things. That was all you. I’m completely innocent.”

“And you’d be telling the truth, because it is the truth, and it wasn’t in fact you who did those things,” Weiss said, satisfied. “And the truth-arbiter would determine that as much, and due to the nature of their position as well as a lot of little complexities I’m not going to explain, the court would have no choice but to admit your words not as just testimonial but real, physical evidence. Since you didn’t study law, I’ll just let you know—that’s some pretty hardball stuff. You basically can’t disprove real evidence. I mean, you tell everyone you’re innocent, and now everyone knows you have to be telling the truth when you say that you’re innocent, how is anyone going to come up with a persuasive argument that you’re not innocent?”

“Okay,” the other Weiss said, and though she still sounded skeptical, Weiss could also see a spark of excitement on her face. “This sounds good and all in theory. But what if the truth-arbiter determines that I’m not telling the truth? That I’m lying? Won’t everyone just take my testimony as real evidence that I’m guilty? Which makes your idea just as liable to backfire on me as it is to work out. Not to mention, why does the court have to admit the arbiter’s judgments at all? I mean, if the arbiter is just another person, can’t they just make, well, entirely arbitrary judgments? No one has to believe or trust the arbiter’s judgement. The concept seems fundamentally flawed.”

“Truth-arbiters aren’t going to be people who were randomly pulled off the street. They’re going to be people with specific Semblances that make them uniquely suitable for the position, people whose judgments must be considered by all accounts to be reliable and trustworthy. The main reason truth-arbiters fell out of practice is because of how difficult it is to find people who fulfill the strict criteria of standing in as an arbiter. Luckily for you, if I recall correctly, there’s a Huntress in Atlas who has the exact Semblance you need. Someone who is perfectly suited for arbitrating your case,” Weiss said. She smirked. “Get the judge to subpoena Robyn Hill.”

The other Weiss went quiet for a moment, clearly mulling over Weiss’s words. Weiss smugly thought about how it really was an airtight solution. It wasn’t like the prosecution was going to ask, ‘Is the  _ body  _ you’re in guilty of committing so and so criminal acts?’ No, they would ask ‘Did  _ you _ do so and so criminal acts’, and Weiss Schnee, the one that was over there for now at least, did not.

Then, the other Weiss said, ”I have another question.”

“Sure.”

“Getting someone like Robyn Hill to arbitrate the case. Is it possible the judge will deny the motion for subpoena?”

“Technically, I think the judge could try to deny it on the grounds that you’re an Atlesian citizen and not a Valean one, but that would be going against the international law and citizenry treaty that the Kingdoms signed in the aftermath of the Great War, which promised to hold all citizens of the four Kingdoms as equal in the eyes of each Kingdom’s criminal code. That’s the same treaty that allows Vale to arrest you and put you on trial without having to seek out special permission from Atlas in the first place. As for Robyn Hill, if you’re worried she won’t show up, she’s a Huntress, so she’s automatically subject to international law and has to answer the appropriate subpoenas, not unless she wants to lose her license. Though, since you went to Beacon, I’m sure you’re aware of that particular detail.”

“What if I’m not an Atlesian citizen?” the other Weiss said.

“But you are.”

“Suppose the Atlesian High Council revoked my citizenship and all the rights that would’ve been associated with it.”

Well.

Weiss had an odd inkling that the other Weiss Schnee was not discussing a hypothetical in this situation.

This was really really funny. But awkward. So okay, maybe the solution wasn’t as airtight and as perfect as Weiss had thought it would be. It was still simple and beautiful, of course, but hmm, what an unexpected curveball.

“...This is why I gave it a seventy percent chance of succeeding,” Weiss said, shrugging. “Unforeseen possibilities that could arise which I did not consider. It’s just as possible the judge  _ won’t _ deny the motion.”

“ _ Oh my gods _ ,” the other Weiss groaned. “I trusted you.” And then, tersely, without preamble, “Fuck Ozpin.”

“Ozpin was the one who got them to revoke your citizenship? You know, that’s a brilliant move. It’s honestly diabolical. If I was an evil power-hungry dictator, this would be exactly the kind of shit I would try to pull.”

“Thanks,” the other Weiss muttered. “You’re being entirely helpful.”

“You aren’t going to get angry at me, like usual, and blame me for the situation?”

“I’ve realized that I’m always angry at you. It’s a perpetual state. I’m coming close to accepting it as one of those unfortunate facts of life.”

Weiss opened her mouth to retort when she heard knocking at the door. A second later, a familiar voice drifted through the door. Ruby Rose’s.

“Are you okay, Weiss? Uh. You’ve kind of been in there for a while.”

In the mirror, the other Weiss Schnee’s eyes had widened comically and she was drawing her hand across her mouth in a dramatic zipping motion. And then, loudly, the other Weiss said, “I’m okay, Ruby. Can you hear me?”

“Weiss? Hello? Are you in there?”

“Ruby, I’m fine. I’m here.”

“If I don’t get an answer in the next ten seconds, I’m uh going to bust this door down.”

“She can’t hear you,” Weiss snickered, quietly. Then, she cleared her throat, and said, “You don’t have to do that. Sorry, I got lost in thought.”

“...In the bathroom?”

“You can go back to the seats. I’ll be out soon. I’m okay.”

She put her ear to the door. When she was sure Ruby Rose had left, she returned to the mirror. The other Weiss said, glumly, “So the only person I can talk to from my world is you.”

“Could you look any less happy saying that?”

The other Weiss ran a hand through her hair. It was the first time that Weiss had seen her perform that particular nervous tic and she immediately took notice.

“...It was a rhetorical question,” Weiss said.

“Before you go. I was wondering if we could discuss your—our—mother,” other Weiss said, quietly. “And what happened to her.”

Weiss said, “No.” 

The other Weiss flinched.

Something about the expression her face had taken, perhaps.

“We’re done here,” Weiss said.

++

_ “I’ve realized that I’m always angry at you. It’s a perpetual state. I’m coming close to accepting it as one of those unfortunate facts of life.” _

_ Yeah, and fuck you, too, Weiss Schnee,  _ Weiss thought, viciously.  _ Really hope someone decides to shove you off a cliff and crack your skull wide open. _

Stop. 

Calm down.

_ You’re getting upset over nothing. _

Weiss considered how she felt.  _ Look, see here.  _ The dead garden inside of her was no closer to sprouting flowers than it had ever been before. Like that, the intense bubble of emotion subsided.

She hadn’t thought about Willow Schnee in… It had to have been years, right? There were few things she remembered from her early childhood. Someone tucking her in. Bedtime stories and lullabies. A hand on her forehead, checking her temperature.  _ “Oh, darling.”  _

Darling. Weiss repeated the word, frowning. She was so caught up in the strangeness of it, the way the syllables rolled around in her mouth all wrong, that she almost ran into Ruby when the other girl abruptly stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Jaune!” And Ruby Rose took off running.

Weiss, meanwhile, shook her head and let the memories fade into the cold.

Jaune Arc was exactly as the other Weiss Schnee had described. A tall boy with scraggly blonde hair and blue eyes. The way he behaved was less derpy than she had anticipated and more melancholic. Nora Valkyrie was supposed to be energetic and upbeat. Which she was. But she was also melancholic. As for Lie Ren, the boy was just plain melancholic.

“We can talk plans over dinner,” Jaune said, offering a wan smile. “Are you two hungry?”

It was getting late. Close to sunset, like Weiss had predicted, and there was no way Ruby and her would be able to catch the return airship to Patch. Seeing no other choice, she followed Ruby and the three others down the street and into the surprisingly nice house they were apparently staying at. Weiss made a note to ask the three how they could afford such a boarding situation.

The meal they were planning to prepare wasn’t anything fancy. Having increased her knife skills considerably helping Taiyang Xiao Long, Weiss was the one who took over the cutting board. The up and down motion of the knife soothed her in a way. She drifted in and out of the surrounding conversation, attention waning, thoughts going elsewhere.

Oil. Putting the vegetables in the pan. Seriously, what was she even doing here? The more she thought it the more it confused her. She had already established that domestic bliss was boring. 

If the judge denied the motion for subpoena, then the other Weiss Schnee would have to somehow convince Robyn Hill to volunteer for the trial. Weiss didn’t know much about Robyn Hill; Hill had appeared in the papers once, which was how Weiss had remembered her. Something about a sort of political activist group, rejecting Atlesian military customs, fighting for the common people? Yeah, not the kind of person who would think favorably about the head of the SDC. There was going to be some difficulties there.

The vegetables were charring a little too much. What did Taiyang say to do in this situation? 

Turn the fire down. Reach for the knob, brush against someone else’s hand, open her mouth to absentmindedly apologize, meet silver eyes, and flinch violently. Not necessarily in that order.

The pan knocked onto the counter with a noticeable clang and attracting everyone’s attention. Hot oil splashed onto Weiss’s arm.

Fuck.

“It’s fine,” Weiss said, over Ruby’s babbling apologies and fretting. “Let’s just clean it up.”

Ruby was still apologizing and fretting but Weiss was doing her best to tune her out. If she ignored Ruby Rose hard enough, perhaps she could similarly ignore how it was becoming steadily apparent that she could not function in Ruby Rose’s vicinity, despite her best efforts otherwise. Every step forward felt like thirty backwards. 

Weiss went to rummage through the cabinets for dish towels. Lie Ren caught her by the elbow and gave her a gentle half-smile.

“Someone else can take care of it,” he said. “May I talk with you for a second?”

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao I love making up legal nonsense
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading, hope you guys have a good Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it)! Safe travels


	9. Chapter 9

“Miss Schnee, even ignoring the fact that summoning a truth-arbiter simply isn’t something that’s done anymore, trust me when I say this will do nothing but harm your case. I know you studied law at school, but I am a fully-fledged professional. I know what I’m doing. You need to listen to me.”

“And yes, Gray, while I’m sure you’re very good at what you do, at the end of the day, you work for me, not the other way around. You’re my counsel. You’re the one who needs to listen.”

“This is like shooting yourself in the foot!”

“You actually do think I’m guilty, don’t you? You think this will backfire tremendously on me?”

“The framework of the argument we have currently is a sound one. You have a solid case that the Kingdom of Vale is using you as a scapegoat for their own shortcomings considering that the actual culpable criminals are still out there on the loose. Furthermore, the revocation of your Atlesian citizenship is absolutely unlawful. If it’s true that General Ironwood and the Headmaster of Beacon pressured—”

“Your argument essentially boils down to the point that I’m not as evil as the other criminals that managed to escape the aftermath and that I could’ve done a lot worse compared to what I actually did do. That’s not going to cut it with any jury, no matter how you spin it.”

“And this is going to ‘cut it’ instead? Where did you even get this nonsense idea? I don’t understand!”

“I’ll take full responsibility for whatever happens in the trial. If you’re worried about not getting paid if I lose, don’t worry. You’ll get my money. Put forth the motion.”

They argued for another good five minutes or so before Gray, evidently giving up on trying to convince her, threw his hands in the air and left. It seemed like Weiss was pissing off her lawyer a lot recently but she really couldn’t care that much. Weiss gave herself a few more minutes to try to destress from the terse encounter, then went to look over at the numerous documents spread over the table that had been brought to her. SDC-related material.

Quotas, internal management reports, contract, supply chain negotiations, things she didn’t even know the names for. The hours on the clock ticked onwards as Weiss worked her way through the stack slowly but surely, BSing her way through only about fifty percent of it. Her business acumen wasn’t the best, considering that she thought she would have years if not decades more time to get herself acclimated to corporate ongoings, but it was passable.

“This is a bit of a change in attitude from just a couple days ago,” Ilia remarked.

“New perspective,” Weiss muttered. “I realized that there’s no point in just giving up, in rolling over and letting myself die. Even if the SDC is up to its neck in scandals and the board is on the verge of meltdown, it’s still my family’s company and my family’s legacy and I think I should do my best to do right by it.”

Which was, when she stated it out loud, a truth she did believe in. The other part of it was that she was feeling, overall, better. She didn’t want to admit it in full and perhaps she was being naive, deluding herself, but the other Weiss Schnee’s idea _was_ a good one. It gave her hope that things would work out in the long run. It felt a bit like countless doors of opportunity had suddenly opened up to her, all of which she could open if only she could pass through this first hurdle. The sudden shift in perspective was enlightening.

If her life wasn’t over… If it wasn’t ruined… If she could live and be free… Hadn’t she always wanted to redeem the Schnee family legacy? Wasn’t that her motivation for training to become a Huntress in the first place? She had always known she would inherit the company some day. She just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. What she needed to do was reframe herself, ground herself in this new reality with its new rules. New reality or not, wrong body or not, she should commit herself to being the best person she could. That was what she had lost sight of in feeling sorry for herself. 

It was nice to have some general goals to focus on:

  1. Stay out of prison.
  2. Fix the SDC.
  3. Yet to be determined.



At around midnight, Ilia came over to Weiss’s table with a mug of coffee. “I’m tagging out, Boss,” Ilia said, sliding the mug in her direction across the table. “Wake me up if you think you’re about to get killed and Penny can’t handle it by herself.”

“You two really should take days off,” Weiss said, eyebrows twisting. “I feel bad that you have to be cooped up here with me all the time.”

“Twelve hours on and off isn’t bad,” Ilia shrugged. “All I have to do is sit around and I get free housing, free food, and tons of overtime pay. It doesn’t require any altruistic motivation on my part.”

“Of course,” Weiss nodded. Her hand curled around the stem of the mug. “Sleep well.”

Ilia gave her a slow, lingering nod then left. The coffee, Weiss discovered, was just the way she liked it. Yes, things could be worse.

The scratching of Weiss’s pen as she wrote. A bit of time passing. Penny came into the room. She seemed to be in a cheery mood.

“You’re looking better, Miss Schnee,” Penny said. “Though you really should be sleeping. Staying up late is bad for your circadian rhythm!”

Weiss thought about asking if Penny ever slept or if Penny just plugged in somewhere and recharged, but that seemed insensitive. She said, “It’ll be okay. Just a while longer.”

She worked in silence for another hour, then tucked the pen behind her ear and leaned back from the paperwork. Any more figures and her head would explode. She stood up and tidied the table and went to leave.

“I’ll be right out here,” Penny said. “Good night, Miss Schnee!”

“I…” Weiss said. She paused at the doorway to the hall and looked back. It had been something that had been on her mind for now. “I don’t know. I feel like I should say thank you, somehow, for some reason. You’ve both been…” she struggled to get the words out. “You’ve both been very… patient with me.”

“That’s kind of you to say. We’re only doing our jobs,” Penny smiled, but something about her expression didn’t entirely meet her eyes. Then, in a softer voice, “Just remember to have your talk with Ilia some time soon.”

In the dark, alone, lying on her bed, Weiss stared at the ceiling. 

She still missed people. Of course, she understood that not everything had suddenly, miraculously turned perfect. It had always been her goal to redeem her family. But it had never been her dream. And now, the responsibilities had been foisted upon hers before she could even think of saying she wasn’t ready. 

How casually the way the other Weiss Schnee had gotten herself disowned, completely rejecting that burden in Weiss’s world. But at the same time, if it was something the other Weiss Schnee could have turned away so easily all along, then why had she tried so hard to become the CEO of the SDC in the first place? Why do what she did to their father? Weiss felt like she was missing more than a couple fundamental pieces to the puzzle.

Weiss turned over. She couldn’t sleep. She felt restless. The caffeine must not have been wearing off.

Weiss sighed.

She sat up and went to the window. Pulled it open. The night air felt good on her face but a bit chilly.

Going to the closet, she rummaged through it for something thicker to wear. A jacket. Shoes. Back to the window.

She was about to do a reckless thing, wasn’t she? Ruby and Yang must’ve rubbed off on her more than she realized at Beacon. Gods. How she missed them. How she missed catching Blake’s amused gazes over the top of her books, the both of them secretly fond. 

Standing on the window sill with her hand on the frame, Weiss thought about jumping downwards. From here to Beacon Academy, it really wasn’t that far. It had only taken Penny, when she had gone at Weiss’s request, a few hours to return. If she really wanted to, Weiss could make it there in no time.

Team RBY. Did they sleep in bunk beds, too? What did they do with the empty bed in their room? 

It was a stupid idea. It was a stupid idea. Weiss had given into the temptation at the Vytal Festival, and that had turned out splendidly not well. They did hate her. She had seen the looks on their faces. The confused betrayal on Ruby’s. She reminded that the reason she had made Penny go to Beacon and give the keychain to Ruby was, in a way, her form of saying goodbye. A parting for good.

_You can’t._

Weiss jumped. The glyph formed mid-air and caught her easily. She made another one, then another, a staircase spiral of them leading upwards. She was living in a penthouse apartment, so she was quick to reach the roof above. She landed solidly on the concrete behind metal railing.

Inhale, exhale. The city of Vale sprawled out around her. Her Aura hummed a gentle song in her blood as she surveyed the cityscape. After so long of not using her Semblance, using her glyphs again felt a bit like scratching an itch she didn’t know she had.

Well, she had told herself at some point she needed to get back into shape, hadn’t she?

She did a couple of laps around the perimeter of the railed roof. It was mostly heating and cooling units, a few rather sad-looking potted plants to provide a bit of color. It was common in Atlas for apartments like these to be outfitted with extravagant rooftop terraces, swimming pools, even though the climate in Atlas was the least suited for such things. Something about the simple functionality here pleased her.

The run warmed her up. If she had Myrtenaster, she would practice her fencing forms next. As it was, she casted a few more glyphs, did some more jumps from one to the next. The reflexes of this body, she found after a couple of scrapes and tumbles, were not the best. 

Besides platforms and repulsion, there was a third kind of glyph she could make without Dust. In theory, at least. How she missed Winter, too. What she wouldn’t give to have her older sister there with her. Weiss knelt and put the palm of her hand to the concrete and tried to remember what Winter had told her. 

A flicker of light. Feeble, but there. Weiss pushed herself harder. A bead of sweat trickled down her temple. The radius of the flickering light expanded. She pushed harder.

...Why was she pushing herself so hard in the first place? Accepting the SDC as her given path, parting with Beacon and the people there, that meant parting with the possibility of ever being a Huntress, too. In a way, practicing was pointless. She would never have to use her abilities again, would never—

_Stop doubting yourself!_

Weiss grimaced. Winter’s words rang through her head but it was too late. The momentum was gone. Weiss fell to all fours, gasping for breath, as her attempt at a summoning glyph dissipated.

She climbed to her feet and staggered over to the railing. She leant against it. She needed to save enough energy to be able to make it back into her bedroom. It was a long drop from here to the ground.

Too many things to think of these days. Too many doubts. Countless doors of opportunity in this world were good and all, but didn’t mean much if she didn’t want those doors. In the end, really, Weiss just wanted to go home, to her world, and be with the people she cared about.

++

“I haven’t heard you sing in a long time.”

Some time had passed since Weiss had come up to the roof and she had slipped into the old habit without realizing it. Self-consciously, Wells cut herself off. She turned around, and Ilia was there, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, wearing sneakers. The dawning sun cast a thin slice of light on the side of Ilia’s face and neck, emphasizing the slope of her jaw.

“I’m going to guess Penny doesn’t know you’re here?” Ilia said. “I would scold you about being alone, but something tells me it would simply go in one ear and out the other.”

“What are you doing here yourself?” Weiss asked. Ilia came to a lean on the railings beside Weiss’s spot. 

“Exercise. Better than the gym, Boss,” Ilia shrugged. “Even if I can pass as a human and it’s more progressive here in Vale than in Atlas, it’s not really the best idea for a Faunus like me to go to spaces like that.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They considered the sunrise together.

“It was a nice song,” Ilia said, eventually. 

“I felt like indulging myself,” Weiss said. 

“You have a lovely voice.”

Weiss slid a glance at the other girl, surprised. She felt herself blush. “Thank you.”

“It’s only the truth,” Ilia said, voice wry, then looked away. “I remember how we used to sneak to the roof of the Atlas prep school all the time. You always pretended you didn’t want to but I knew deep down you had a secret rebellious streak.”

Weiss curled her fingers around the rails and said, “I guess we should talk.”

“...Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know. You made things pretty clear between us the last time we talked, though.” 

Ilia’s expression went deliberately neutral. Weiss had the feeling Ilia wasn’t referring to the conversation at the fairgrounds but some other conversation altogether preceding that.

Carefully, Weiss said, “With what’s happened recently, you can say I’ve been reevaluating my former… decisions. You’ve probably noticed I haven’t been acting the same as I did before my stint at the hospital.”

“Almost dying does do that for you, does it?” Ilia muttered. Then her eyes widened and she looked away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

“You’re bitter about something.”

“I’m bitter about a lot of things. The whole fucking world, even. It’s not just you,” Ilia said. There was a raw honesty, pain to her voice. “You can call it an inherent character flaw of mine.”

“What have I done that makes you bitter?” Weiss asked, softly.

“We’re actually going to get into this?”

“That’s why we’re talking, aren’t we? I want to make things right.”

“You don’t trust me.”

Weiss opened her mouth to respond but Ilia cut her off.

“No, seriously,” Ilia said. “You don’t. And I don’t understand why. It’s not just this whole deal with Vale, too, and Cinder Fall. It’s with so many other things. You’ve been holding so many secrets for so long and I’m just so tired of it. When I came back to Atlas, the very first thing I did was apologize to you. The next thing I did was tell you where I had been, all the things I’d been doing. I told you about how lost and misguided I felt, the White Fang, everything. I trusted you. I was honest with you. And you just… you just… you _used_ me. Like, at the time, maybe there was a part of me that really wanted to do it, sure. But you made me try to kill your dad. How sick is that?”

It was a lot to take in at once. The White Fang? Her father? Ilia was the one who had…? Weiss didn’t know what to say. Helplessly, she said, “I’m sorry.”

“I kept waiting for you to give me an explanation,” Ilia said. “To make it make sense to me. You’d never loved your dad but the person I knew would have never just done something so cold-blooded either, without any remorse. But it never happened. You never said a word. Anytime I tried to bring it up you would just say, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, nothing does. ‘Hey, Ilia, I guess you did a good job trying to kill my dad. Cool. Want to work for me now?’ You never gave me anything more than that.”

A breeze passed between the two of them.

“Your sister publicly denounces you as a racist and an egomaniac and I ask you why because I thought you two were close and I know you aren’t and all you do is shrug. All these scandals start to pile up out of nowhere and I ask you why and all you say is, ‘It’s fine, I’m working on it’. You say, ‘Look, it’s not my fault, that’s all you need to know.’ You’re engaged? What? I didn’t know you were even seeing someone! But oh wait, just kidding, now the engagement is cancelled and I have to find out about it from a goddamn tabloid. You say, ‘Look, I hired you to work for me, not to be my friend. Let’s keep things professional. Maybe we shouldn’t address each other by our names anymore if it’s going to cause these problems.’ For fuck’s sake, _Weiss_ . I thought we had promised not to keep things from one another. But you’ve never been honest with me _once_ since we reunited.”

“The worst part about this is that I still trust _you_ ,” Ilia said, hollowly. “There’s a part of me that still believes in you. That cares about you or at least the person you used to be. I’ve told myself time and time again I should just leave the SDC and Atlas and you but I can’t. Doing so would be accepting that everything back then was just meaningless, and all the choices I’ve made were the wrong ones, and returning to Atlas to find you again was a mistake. It would be accepting that the person you are now is the real you. It’s one thing for someone like Penny to believe you’re innocent. It’s another thing for someone like me. How can I still even lie to myself that there has to be some perfect, magical explanation for everything? How can I keep holding on? I hate how at the end of the day what I can’t stand isn’t even the idea that you’ve become an awful, horrible person, but that you won’t tell me _why_.”

Ilia screwed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths and her skin was blue and Weiss realized she was about to cry. “But I don’t know. I don’t know. You have been acting differently again these past few weeks, though I don’t suppose I’ll ever get an explanation for that either, will I? Beside, you’ll probably be… gone anyways, soon. It really will all have been meaningless. And I’ll have to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life after that.”

Ilia wiped a tear. Then she took a deep breath and the color of her skin returned to their normal color. When she spoke again, her voice was steady. “If you want me to leave, now is the time. We’ve had our talk.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Weiss said. “And I want to explain things to you. I really do. But I can’t.” Even she didn’t have the answers that Ilia wanted.

“Figures you would say that,” Ilia said, laughing without humor. “At least I got that blasted rock off my chest. Let’s just go back to the same old same old now, Boss. It’s what we do best.”

“Ilia,” Weiss said. “I’m… I’m going to win the trial. I won’t be going anywhere. And then you’ll have as much time as you need to figure… figure out whatever it is you want to do. Leaving or staying, I’ll support you. Everything that happened isn’t meaningless. Everything won’t stay like this, unresolved. I can promise you that. I can promise I _will_ give you answers.”

“Guess I’m still the fool,” Ilia said, “for still believing you.”

++

The motion for subpoena fell through. Gray seemed slightly smug as he told her this. Weiss kept her composure as she masked the white hot rage that was boiling underneath the surface of her skin. It wasn’t really him that she was angry at, but the other Weiss Schnee. The other Weiss had missed their fucking meeting again. 

One second had Weiss feeling sorry for her. One second had Weiss feeling confused. There had even been one second where Weiss had felt grateful. Now, without fail, she was just angry.

 _I don’t care if you’ve had the worst, most tragic life in the world. That doesn’t excuse you for being such a disgusting and contemptible person. You made her try to_ kill your father _and then you strung her along telling her nothing and you have the guts to say to me you’re an honest person and ‘It’s just time, you don’t have to let it have meaning if you don’t want to’. You damn—_

To Gray, she said, “Call up Robyn Hill. She’s a Huntress in Atlas. I’m sure you know of her.”

Gray paused. “Pardon?”

“Get her number and call her up,” Weiss said. “And if she doesn’t pick up, make a donation to her organization in the sum of 10,000 Lien and call her again. Look, really, just do it.”

“I don’t have access to your accounts, Miss Schnee,” Gray said. 

“So you’ll bribe all the people _you_ want to bribe for my sake, but when I want to make a donation to an admittedly good cause you’ll suddenly ‘not have access to my accounts’? Then get whoever has access to my accounts do it. You know what, even if Robyn Hill does pick up the call the first time, make the donation anyways. And make it to the sum of 100,000 Lien.”

Gray gritted his teeth but nodded and left the living room for the kitchen, presumably to go do what she had ordered him to. Ilia said, idly, “What’s the deal with contacting Robyn Hill anyways? This arbiter business?”

 _How can she even look me in the face so calmly after all of that?_ Weiss thought, pained. _Like nothing’s wrong?_ But she smoothed out her own face and feelings and said, “It’s how I’m going to win the trial. She’s going to help me tell the truth.”

“And you’re really going to tell the truth?”

“I am.”

Ilia didn’t say anything further, only nodded, her expression unreadable.


	10. Chapter 10

She was walking with Ruby Rose in a forest with endless red leaves. Ruby Rose was telling her a story, but Weiss wasn’t paying attention. She was studying the trees, the long shadows that hung from their branches. Something didn’t feel right.

Suddenly she realized that everything had gone silent. She stopped walking. Ruby was gone. She turned her head and looked behind her, but saw that the forested path had been overgrown with brown weeds. Dead vines, dead thorns, a dead garden.

A glint of color reached the corner of her eye. Weiss turned again. Now, Ruby was there once more, standing in front of her, but something about her expression, her eyes… 

Ruby took a step towards her. Her soft, youthful face began to morph into cruel and long features. She grew taller, limbs elongating. Another step, and a man with gray hair and a cold, calm smile had completely replaced her. Whoever this was wasn’t Ruby anymore, but his eyes remained the same. Silver eyes. A depthless quality. The man, smiling at her.

Weiss took a step back. If she could have run, she would have. But there was a voice in her ears. Her father’s. It felt like someone had clapped their hands over her ears, squeezing her skull between their hands. _“We wouldn’t have to do this if you had just listened.”_

The gray-haired man reached her. One hand grasped her face, tilted her chin back, and he said, _“You remind me of my son. Will you cry like he did?”_

Then his other hand reached for her forehead. And Weiss woke up.

She was already hyperventilating as she sat up. Fucking fantastic, she thought. But she was not—she refused—to cry. That would have been too much.

Then she realized someone was in the room with her. Did she shriek? Possibly. She threw out a blind fist. The lights flew on. 

Oh.

Weiss stared at her outstretched fist. 

The pain was slowly registering, a slow crawl at first then becoming more and more acute. She had broken something in her hand, had bashed it against some kind of metal. Okay. So, she had done something stupid. 

Ruby Rose, dropping her weapon, reaching for her in concern. 

The cold place inside of Weiss whispering, draping its loving fingers up her spine, pressing its lips to her cheek. 

_You don't care. You don't care. You're fine._

_You know you don't have to deal with this anymore if you don't want to._

_It doesn’t matter._

_Why not just... stop?_

_Just stop._

_Stop._

_Stop._

Then Ruby Rose touched her.

The numbness was overbearing, but that silver color, that instinctive jolt, brought Weiss back.

"Don't touch me," she hissed. She flinched and pulled back hard, banging the back of her knees against the bed frame. A dull throb of emotion, a shiver. "Get away from me.”

"Weiss—"

"What did I fucking say? You—"

_Hey._

_Hey. You're fine. This isn't anything to be bothered by. Think about this rationally. Use a level head._

The hysteria was hard to deal with. It couldn't be anything besides hysteria. She was being hysterical. Freaking out over nothing. She needed to calm down. Stop breathing so fast, Weiss.

Was it always going to be like this, forever? This vacillation…

_I miss people._

You know, sometimes when Weiss thought of Ilia, she wanted to cry. They used to be close. What happened to them, anyways? How had they gotten like this? And now they were in entirely different worlds. They would never see each other again. There were so many things between them that had been left unsaid.

She hadn't cried in so long. She was sure she couldn’t anymore.

She hadn't thought of her mother in so long.

_"Oh, darling. You'll be alright. Shh."_

Selfish prick. A miserable, lying cur. That's you, Weiss Schnee. Even the other Weiss agrees.

_Stop._

Weiss took a slow, shuddering breath and before she knew it the cold had spread. Her heartbeat slowed. She took her injured hand and pressed the back of it against her eyes, the touch of skin on skin, the pain of broken bone, even that attenuating. Dead garden, dead vines, slick against the inside of her ribcage, leaves being plucked until nothing remained. Perfect numbness. Against the back of her hand, her eyes still opened, unclosed, pressed into her flesh.

_Just... stop._

Close your eyes now. Blink. When you open them, you will be a blank slate.

Weiss lowered her hand. Across the space that existed between them, she met Ruby Rose's gaze evenly. 

Then she cocked her head and smiled the smile of one who has everything under control, perfect and practiced, the smile of one who does nothing with remorse or any feeling at all.

"I can see now that this isn't working," she said. "Once is an accident but anything more than that makes it a pattern. It’s not your fault but mine, I suppose, for having such difficulties over something that should be so trivial.”

“What are you talking about?” Ruby whispered. “What’s going on? Weiss?”

“I am in love with you, Ruby Rose,” Weiss said, tasting the feel of the words. Then, she cocked her head. “No, of course I’m not. Actually, I can’t function around you in the worst way possible. I hate you. I hate you and your damned silver eyes.”

What did she need to bring with her? Her rapier, Myrtenaster. Her bag containing little more than one change of clothing and her Scroll. As she lifted her bag, her hand throbbed, but Weiss ignored it.

“You can tell your father and Qrow that I’m grateful they let me stay on Patch in your house,” Weiss said. “But as for now, for both of us, I think it’s the best if we put space between us, and we go our separate ways, for good.”

“Weiss—”

“This is goodbye, then. We won’t be seeing each other again.”

In a few steady strides she had left the room. Right outside in the hallway, Lie Ren. His expression was full of a pitiable sort of judgment and understanding.

“Are you going to try to stop me?” Weiss frowned.

“I think you’re making a mistake,” he said. “No matter what’s going on, this isn’t the way to do things.”

“You know that we’re only strangers,” Weiss said. “At the end of the day, you don’t know me at all.”

Stepping outside into the night, alone, she saw that it was raining.

++

The conversation with Lie Ren the night before, in the same hallway, had gone something like this:

“Are you okay?”

“Yes?” Weiss said, rubbing the spots on her arm where the oil had burnt her. “I mean, it hurts, but I’ll get over it. Nothing worse than any accidents I had training at Beacon.”

“My Semblance allows me to mask the emotions of people, whether others’ or my own,” Ren said. “To an extent, however, it also gives me an intuitive sense of the emotions others are feeling.”

Ah. Hell. Weiss had an inkling she knew where this was going. What a dumb Semblance.

“Something about you feels… off now,” Ren said, hesitantly. “Your emotions. It’s like they’re muffled, shadowy. If I didn’t know better, I would say that I had used my Semblance on you and masked them. But I know I haven’t. Is there something going on? Did something happen?”

“I’m just a bit depressed,” Weiss said. It was the first thing that came to her mind. “And to be honest… Well, I’m sure you know, you were at Beacon... But a lot of things have happened, and I’m still going through the motions of processing everything, and I know I’m not entirely okay.”

Which was technically not a lie. Maybe ‘depression’ wasn’t what was going on in the strict sense of the word, but it was probably the word that came closest to encapsulating things.

Ren didn’t accept her explanation, though. He said, shaking his head, “I’ve felt depression before. This doesn’t feel like that. It’s different.”

 _Well, aren’t you the expert,_ Weiss bit back. Instead, she said, “I don’t know what to tell you then.”

“There was a moment in the kitchen where I felt you break through cleanly. I felt you clearly then. You were terrified. Of Ruby.”

“It wasn’t her. I was just lost in thought. Some bad memories. And then she surprised me.”

“I know we’re not close. But I’m here to talk if you need someone to talk to.”

“Thanks. So, are you going to tell anybody else about this, then?”

Ren hesitated. “It’s private,” he said. “I won’t.”

“You and Nora seem close,” Weiss said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you shared everything with one another.”

“Even the closest people don’t share everything with one another,” he said, quietly, his expression bisected by something peculiar. Then, he said, “You’re deflecting.”

What a dumb Semblance. 

“I don’t know what to tell you,” she said, like before.

“Is it alright if I touch you?” he said. “On the shoulder?”

“I would really you rather not.”

“If I know what’s going on, I might be able to help you, Weiss. My Semblance works better with touch.”

“Who says I need to be helped?” Weiss said. Then, despite herself, “If I let you do it, will you drop the subject?”

Ren said, “If that’s what you want.”

Weiss nodded. She allowed Ren to place a hand on her shoulder and close his eyes. He held his hand there for at least a minute, before he took his hand away, opening his eyes.

“What’s the verdict?” she said.

“I don’t know,” he said, sounding bewildered. “There’s… There’s nothing there.”

“There we go then,” Weiss said. “Like I said. It’s just—”

“Just shadows,” Ren murmured. “Shadows, and nothing.”

Weiss paused. That was one way of describing it she hadn’t thought about before. Shadows and nothing. She liked her own, poetic descriptions more. They made more sense to her.

A cold place. A dead garden. Shadows and nothing.

During dinner, Weiss provoked a fight with Ruby Rose, just to see if she could. To prove that she could, that she wasn’t that afraid of Ruby Rose, even if she was. It was about going to Haven, and how it was a ridiculous idea, and how she couldn’t go, wouldn’t go. It was something, Weiss knew, that had to have been done eventually anyways, a conversation long time in coming.

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Ruby had said.

“I didn’t know how to get the words out,” she had responded.

And then later, the dream, and then her, getting up and grabbing her things and leaving. 

In the present, walking through the Vale rain, Weiss wasn’t afraid anymore. Just cold. On a scale of one to ten, how stupid was she being? 

Take inventory of the situation.

She was alone and cold and wandering through the city at night. In the span of twenty-fours hours she had broken her hand and lost the housing she had connived herself into and been determined to keep. On the plus side, she no longer had to deal with Ruby Rose. On the minus side, she was back to square… This wasn’t even square one. Square negative ten?

Hm.

The situation was unfortunate, but really, on a separate level, she felt completely fine.

This was still better than her old life. Not by much. But better. There was none of the… the suffocation. The trappedness. The feeling of inevitability of a looming end.

Still, what the hell did she want to do now, anyways?

A new life. The rain. What the hell was she doing here, anyways? 

It was fine.

She felt fine.

Anyways, she…

…

In university, she had studied law and economics. The short of it was she could’ve, should’ve studied business, corporate finance, management, but she had ignored those in favor of what she thought were the more worldly, well-rounded fields. She had thought that law and economics would give her a better perspective of understanding the world.

Why? Sure, the degrees had been interesting. They had been challenging. But why? You didn’t need those kinds of knowledge to become the head of the SDC. To be the head of the SDC, you just needed to be able to make the calculating and callous decisions of trampling over the poor in order to make money. You didn’t need a better perspective and a better understanding of the world to be a good corporate overlord.

She had enrolled in university at fourteen. It had taken her 18 months to graduate. She didn’t remember much of those days. Just studying and studying and studying and studying. In the beginning, the pressure had been soul-crushing. She had wanted to quit for a myriad of reasons.

Ah. A memory was coming to her now. Law and economics. Her motivations. _“I think that if I ever change anything, I have to do it from the bottom to the top,” she said. “I need to get a fundamental understanding of the problems. Why things are the way they are.”_

_“But this is killing you,” Ilia said. “This isn’t what you want to do.”_

_“Racism isn’t just a problem of attitude and culture,” Weiss said. “It’s institutional. It’s rooted in the Atlesian legal code, in every kingdom’s legal code, in the way policies are designed to benefit the wealthy and take advantage of—”_

_“I don’t want you to feel obligated to do what you hate,” Ilia said, “just because of me.”_

_Weiss’s fingers were trembling as they skimmed across the top of the table. She hunched. It was a nervous tic she had never been able to get rid of—the trembling. “It’s not just because of you. If I’m going to have to be someone I hate anyways,” she said, “then I might as well get some good out of it. It’s the least I can do.”_

_“Screw that,” Ilia said. “Screw all of it. Let’s just get out of this stupid city. Let’s run away from it all. We’re young. We should be free to make our own choices.”_

_“You know I can’t. I—I can’t. My father. You know he’s counting on me.”_

_“He’s an abusive fucking asshole is what it is. I don’t know how you can bother defending him.”_

_“What about your parents, too, won’t they—”_

_“My parents don’t get it either. Of course, I know they care about me, but they want me to live my whole life pretending to be someone I’m not. They want me to go to university like you, get a degree, live up the high life here in Atlas, pretending to be a human. ‘The best revenge is a life well-lived,’ they say. But that isn’t and wouldn’t be a life well-lived. It won’t change anything for anyone, least of all the Faunus. It’ll just make me miserable. Just like how your life is making you miserable.”_

_There was a moment of silence. Ilia’s dark expression softened. She reached across the table and put her hand on top of Weiss’s._

_“We can be more than what other people want us to be,” Ilia said, squeezing her hand. “And we can still change things, too, for the better. Killing yourself just so you can try to fix the SDC isn’t the only way you can do good in the world.”_

_“What am I supposed to do, then?” Weiss whispered. “I don’t know what to do.”_

_“I’m a good fighter,” Ilia said, “and I can help you get better. We can be—”_

Weiss ground her broken hand in her thigh and hissed at the pain, so intense she couldn’t focus on anything but it for a while. But it was a well-intentioned kind of pain, almost like a friend giving her a gentle reminder, steering her away from the wrong path. When the pain faded, her mind had cleared and all she could feel was the rain, steady and cold on her back.

Take inventory of the situation. 

What was she supposed to do?

So she didn’t have a place to stay anymore. She would need a place to stay unless she wanted to go grovelling back to JNPR and Ruby Rose and that was a big fucking no. To get a place to stay she would need money. But she didn’t have money. She had the clothes on her back, a bag with one change of now undoubtedly wet clothing, her Scroll, and her rapier.

Weiss reassessed and thought again, her rapier.

Myrtenaster was an elegant weapon. It was beautiful. But no matter how hard Weiss trained, no matter how hard she tried, it would be ultimately useless to her. 

_You can’t be a Huntress without an Aura or Semblance,_ she thought, _just as much as you can’t be a good person without a fucking heart._

++

Finding the Vale black market wasn’t especially hard. Weiss and Cinder had visited the black market on more than one occasion in Weiss’s original world. It had been where they had originally scouted out Roman Torchwick and strong-armed him into working for them.

The alleyway was where Weiss remembered, near the port and docks. Weiss checked the streets then entered. The lines of tarped stalls and booths were somewhat emptier than she recalled. It seemed even criminals didn’t like to do business outside in the dark and wet, nor in the aftermath of widespread pandemonium and chaos.

Now, Weiss was going through the black market alone. And although Weiss had never trusted Cinder, the woman had always had an exact sense of the things she wanted and how she wanted them done, especially when it involved the ways of using people. In a way, Cinder had protected Weiss from the worst of the criminal underworld and all its dirty details, because she needed Weiss’s money and influence. For the period of time Cinder and Weiss had worked together, they were allies. They made good partners. They got things done.

If it hadn’t been for the double-crossing, really, they could have ruined Vale. Not like the half-success of what had happened here in this city in this world. They could have collapsed the entire kingdom from one coast to the other. That moment towards the end where Weiss had held the plans to everything, on the cusp of it all, she had had that power. She had felt the tenuous heart of millions of lives pulsing in her hand, had seen the arteries of the government and economy laid out before her like strings waiting to be cut. She had understood, for a brief moment, how delicate the world really was, how the facade of humanity’s strength and accomplishments were nothing more than just that in the end, a facade. She had considered what it would feel like to snip those strings one by one, and for a brief moment, she had been sorely tempted.

But this world was still ruined. It would just take a little longer. Until then, Weiss supposed she could only just live.

The man hunched in the dark of the stall examined Myrtenaster with a critical eye. 

“It’s an exceptional weapon,” he said. “A Huntress’s weapon.”

“Yes,” Weiss said. “Which means I’m sure you know what I’m capable of doing. Don’t think of trying anything funny.”

The man’s gaze flicked to the scar then her eyes. Eventually, finding whatever it was that he found in her gaze, he nodded. 

“I can give you 5,000 Lien.”

“That’s fine. But I’d like the money first.”

He counted it out and handed it to her. Weiss could immediately sense the looks directed at her from every direction at the transaction. She said, loudly, “Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Still, she relinquished her rapier.

That was that taken care of, then.

She felt no sorrow as she ducked out of the alleyway unaccosted. It was like she had figured earlier. Myrtenaster had simply become, like so many things, useless to her. Now she was cold and alone and weaponless in the city at night. But at least she had money. She could get a place to stay before figuring out her next move. Maybe a room at a hotel, for the time being. 

Halfway down the block, she suddenly found herself being pinned to the side of a building with the point of a sharp blade pressed to her throat.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” she said. Not even in the black market, but after she had already left. Then, she squinted. It was too dark to make out many features, but she could tell her assailant was a woman. The weapon being held to her throat, strangely enough, seemed to be attached to the end of a parasol. 

Wait a second…

A parasol?

“Ah,” Weiss said. She would have snapped her fingers if her hand wasn’t broken. “You’re Roman’s henchman. Wait, give me a second. Neopolitan.”

The blade pressed deeper against her throat. It was drawing blood now. Weiss was about seventy percent sure that Neopolitan, through the dark, was glaring at her.

“What do you want from me?” Weiss said. “I know you’re mute and that you can’t talk. What, am I just supposed to spitball words at you until we reach some kind of conclusion?”

A piece of paper was shoved in her face. Weiss studied it for several seconds.

“...I can’t read that,” she said. “It’s too dark. And the ink’s smudged. From the rain and water and who knows what else, I suppose.”

Neopolitan threw her head back. Weiss was about eighty percent sure that Neopolitan had just let out a silent scream of frustration.

“So, maybe just let me go?” she said. “You know, I haven’t been having the best night either. Why don't we just call a truce and be on our way?"

Neopolitan yanked Weiss from the wall. Despite her stature, she was deceptively strong. She took Weiss’s bag from her, then after a moment, removed her weapon from Weiss’s throat and tucked it against her side.

The two of them stared at each other for a while. Neither of them moved. Weiss hadn’t really expected that she’d be let go, just like that. She found it interesting that the mute woman didn’t actually use her parasol as a method of protection against the rain. The both of them just stood there, continuing to be soaked wet to the bone.

“Okay, you robbed me, congratulations,” Weiss said, looking at her bag in Neopolitan’s hands.

Neopolitan scowled. She pointed at Weiss, then at herself.

“You want to give my money back to me,” Weiss said, not unconfidently, “because you’re actually a kind and generous person deep down.”

Neopolitan shook her head, then pointed at Weiss again, then herself. She turned around, mimed taking a few steps, then turned around to look at Weiss again.

“You want me to follow you,” Weiss realized. She paused. “But you just held me up. I would be stupid to follow you.”

Neopolitan held up Weiss’s bag containing everything Weiss owned now. The other’s abruptly smug expression seemed to say, _You don’t have another choice._

“Clever,” Weiss said. She considered her chances of running away. Then, she also considered her chances of making it in the city cold and alone, weaponless _and_ moneyless, with a criminal marketplace still less than half a block away.

Letting out a sigh, she did as she was told.

++

In hindsight, Jaune knew his crush on Weiss had been a dumb, stupid thing. The signs had all been there. She had never liked him. On another note, even just the thought of crushes, romance, got to him now in a way it wouldn’t have before. It made him think, inevitably, of Pyrrha, and the feelings she had told him of just before she had shoved him the locker, and their kiss, and—

And—

But this wasn’t about him. Not right now. Because right now, Ruby was crying.

“And then Weiss just left?” Jaune said, disbelieving. “Just… Just like that?”

“When I see her again, I really am going to break someone’s legs,” Nora muttered. She had a comforting arm slung around Ruby's shoulders. “How could she?”

It was true that Jaune had always had this conception of Weiss in his head. A sort of idealization, if you will. Weiss was pretty—anyone would have been blind not to see it—and although her personality had never been exactly warm, he had always seen how she made the exception to be kinder to her team, to Ruby. He had hoped that one day, she would have made the same exception for him. Then maybe they could have been happy together.

But what Weiss had said to Ruby couldn’t be described as anything besides deliberately cruel. Meant to hurt, meant to harm. It was the kind of thing he couldn’t believe she would ever say to anyone, much less to her partner. Or maybe, Jaune thought with a pit of dread, he had only been blinded by his feelings. Maybe all along, Weiss Schnee had really been this awful, cold, and uncaring person who didn’t give a damn about anybody besides herself, and he had just been too stupid to see it, just as he had been too stupid to see so many other things.

“I don’t know if it’s something I did,” Ruby said through her tears. “She’s been acting strange since I woke up, but I-I thought maybe it’s like Yang, she just needs some time to work through some things. But I just don’t understand why she would lie. She _told_ me she wanted to go to Haven, she s-said that she _missed_ me, I just don’t understand why all of a sudden, she would tell me that she h-hates me and—”

Ruby stumbled over her words. Ren came by and knelt in front of Ruby. He put a hand on her knee. “I’m sure Weiss didn’t mean what she said,” he said, softly. “I think you’re right, she just needs some time to work through some things on her own. She’s confused. It’s affecting her judgment. When she’s cleared her mind, she’ll come back.”

“That doesn’t excuse her from acting like a complete bitch,” Nora said, darkly. “Imagine if _I_ told you that I hated you and that I never wanted to see you again, Ren.”

Ren grimaced. Jaune knew what he was thinking—that Nora would never say anything like that to him. Well, clearly Ruby had thought the same about Weiss, and Weiss had gone and done it, and this was where they were.

“Do you think she blames me for w-what happened with her dad?” Ruby asked. “That it was because of me, that I somehow pressured her into—”

“Ruby, whatever happened, it’s not your fault,” Jaune assured her. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

They gave Ruby water and tissues and comforted her some more. She eventually went back to the bedroom, evidently too drained to keep crying. From the doorway, they could see how she curled up beneath the blankets, looking all too much like her age. In the end they were just kids, Jaune thought sadly, in way over their heads, the world falling apart around them. 

Outside in the hallway, Nora crossed her arms.

“I think we should go out there and find the Ice Queen,” Nora said, “and I don’t care if we have to drag her back here kicking and screaming. Get her to apologize to Ruby. Get her on her knees begging for forgiveness, even.”

“But that won’t solve anything,” Ren said. “It won’t be addressing the root of the problem.”

“Just standing around’s not going to solve anything either,” Nora snapped. “We have to do _something_!”

“This is a mess,” Jaune mumbled. “Everything’s a mess.”

How could it have been that not too long ago, everything was still fine? What he wouldn’t do to go back then again, to give his past self a good shake on the shoulders and a slap on the head... He couldn’t help the feeling that if only Pyrrha was here, she would know what to do. Pyrrha had always known what to do. She was smart and kind and funny and strong. But Pyrrha was gone.

So, this was where they were.

  
  
  
  



	11. Chapter 11

Weiss Schnee’s trial was starting today. Every major news channel in Vale was covering it. Gossip didn’t normally travel far at a school like Beacon, but today, anyone who was anyone seemed to be talking about Weiss Schnee.

In Team RBY’s dorm room, Ruby played absentmindedly with the keychain in her fingers. Yang was sitting on Blake’s bed, opening the present Ruby and Blake had gotten her.

“Aw! You guys didn’t have to!” Yang laughed as she took out the plushie. It was of herself in miniature, blonde hair and outfit and everything, striking a confident pose while winking. “This is really cute!”

“We wanted to,” Blake said, simply. “Just to show you how much you mean to us. And that we’re proud of you, no matter what.”

“Come here! That’s too sweet! Ruby!”

Ruby snapped to attention and jumped off her bed. Yang had one arm wrapped around Blake, who was slightly pink, and her other arm was opened and outstretched towards Ruby.

“Blake just wanted another ‘you’ to cuddle with when you’re gone,” Ruby grinned. “She has ulterior motives!”

Ruby went to her sister. Wrapping her arm around Ruby, Yang squeezed her tight. Ruby hugged her back and whispered, “We really are proud of you. It’s sad to see you’re still down. Cheer up, you’ll get Pyrrha next time!”

It was a Saturday, so they didn’t have class. Ruby knew that Blake and Yang normally went off to Vale or wherever to do a partner thing on Saturdays. Oftentimes, they invited Ruby to tag along, but more and more Ruby found herself declining. It was Blake and Yang’s partner time after all, she figured. She didn’t want to get between the two of them, especially not when what was going on between the two was obviously not simply partner-related things. Besides, RBY spent plenty of time together as a team during the other days of the week. Ruby could live with spending time by herself.

It just sucked a little that it happened so often.

Figuring that Blake and Yang would want a bit of alone time right now, Ruby hung around for a couple more minutes, then made an excuse and left the dorm. As she walked through the halls, she continued to play with the keychain in her hand. Maybe she should go find JNPR to see what they were doing. 

She passed by a couple students. Without meaning to, she overheard bits and pieces of their conversation. Of course, they were talking about Weiss Schnee.

Ruby looked down at the keychain as she walked. It was a very simple thing. Just a dolphin. It wasn’t even symbolic of anything except as a reminder of the girl who had won it, and the brief time Ruby had spent with her at the Vytal Tournament fairgrounds. 

_“Miss Schnee wanted me to give this to you,” the orange-haired girl said, gently. “She didn’t want me to say anything, but I think you can see her feelings of caring in this. After all, I don’t think Miss Schnee is one who gives gifts lightly.”_

_“Her feelings of caring,” Ruby repeated, turning the keychain over in her hands. “What is that supposed to mean?”_

_“I’m not sure myself,” the girl said. “But despite what everyone else says, I believe Miss Schnee only has the best intentions at heart. I believe she’s not a bad person.”_

Ruby wanted to believe that, too. Of course she did. She always wanted to believe the best in people. But now, after everything, she just felt confused.

Almost as if by divine coincidence or magic, Ruby found herself bumping into Ozpin as she rounded the corner.

“Oh, Professor,” she said, surprised. She saw that Ozpin was dressed in an attire that was a little more formal than usual, a nice suit and a tie, though his hair was still tousled and unruly. “Are you going somewhere?”

“As a matter of fact, I am, Miss Rose,” Ozpin said, with a pleasant nod. “I am on my way to attend Weiss Schnee’s trial.”

Ruby paused, then nodded back, for the lack of another thing to do. It made sense that Ozpin would be attending the trial. He was the Headmaster of Beacon where Beacon had been one of the primary targets in the terrorism plots. He was also one of the members of the Vale High Council, and although Ruby wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, she knew it was a pretty important position, and that there would be other Council members attending the trial, too.

Ruby mentally worked through the emotions she felt at Ozpin’s words. Mostly, about Weiss, she still felt confused.

“Do you know her?” Ruby asked. “Uh, Weiss, that is?”

“‘Know’ wouldn’t be the most precise of words,” Ozpin said. “But I have had the chance to speak with her face-to-face, yes. From what I understand, you had the chance to speak with her as well.”

“We talked after the finals at the Vytal Tournament,” Ruby said. “Like I told Uncle Qrow, nothing… nothing bad happened. She was nice to me.”

“I wish I could say the same about the conversation we shared,” Ozpin said, wryly. “Although part of it was my fault, no doubt, for antagonizing her. What kind of person do you suppose Weiss Schnee is?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said, glumly. “I really really don’t. I just can’t believe… I don’t know. Not just her, but Emerald and Mercury and their teammate, Cinder, too. How could they all have secretly been such bad people when they all seemed so _nice_? It felt like we were friends.”

Ozpin said, thoughtfully, “Perhaps, Miss Rose, we could at least figure out Weiss Schnee together?”

“Huh?” Ruby blinked. “Professor?”

Ozpin smiled. “If you aren’t too busy today, would you like to come to the trial with me?”

++

The vehicle that came to pick Weiss up from the apartment was a black SUV. There were three black SUVs in total and glancing through the tinted windows of the other two vehicles as she passed them, Weiss could see inside it was all burly, fierce-looking men. Instead of comforting her, the sight of her enhanced security detail only brought on a sudden and intense spike of anxiety. Well. Today was the day. The SUVs were the opposite of discreet and attracting quite a bit of attention from people walking down the street. If people hadn’t known that Weiss Schnee had been staying in this apartment building before, now they probably did.

She got into the back of the car. As the vehicle rolled onto the street and started in the direction of the courthouse, Weiss adjusted and readjusted the cuffs of her blazer. From the front passenger seat, Gray was still trying to talk her into getting rid of Robyn Hill and to not testify.

“As a defendant in a criminal trial, you have the right not to testify,” he said. “I know you want to tell your side of the story, most people do, but more often than not, it’s only liable to hurt your case. It’s not too late to back out, and you can still turn Miss Hill away, too, especially since the prosecution isn’t completely keen about her presence either-”

“Gray,” Weiss said, adjusting the cuffs of her blazer again. “We already know the prosecution can force me to testify. I no longer have the right to not self-incriminate without my citizenship. Besides, it’s pointless to try to change things at this point. Just do your job and it’ll be fine.”

Her words came out calmer, more self-assured than she actually felt. Ilia, to her right, was also adjusting her suit jacket, rolling up the sleeves to her elbows. Penny, to her left, wearing a nice blouse and skirt, gave Weiss a reassuring smile when she caught Weiss glancing at her.

For a while, Weiss watched the buildings moving past the car outside the tinted windows, the blue sky, wondering if this would be one of the last moments she would get to see such a thing before being locked away for good. Then, all too soon, the car was stopping. They had arrived at the courthouse. Through the windows Weiss could hear the crowd, could see them, too. It was a pretty big one.

All of those people, she thought, hated her. They wanted her to be locked away forever. If she had been anxious before, now she was _anxious._ The arraignment hearing had just been last week and yes, she had been charged with treason of the highest order, and yes, she could be looking at a lifetime in prison if things went south. Maybe even an execution, if things went really really south.

“You promised you would tell the truth,” Ilia reminded her.

“Yes, I will,” Weiss muttered, but looking at the crowd outside, her nerves were shot. Ilia, for some reason, was looking at Weiss’s hands, folded tight in her lap, too tensed to move.

Penny said, “Don’t worry, Miss Schnee, we’ll keep you safe for sure.”

The car door on the right opened. Ilia climbed out first and Weiss after. The swarm of burly security men surrounded them—like a bunch of baby ducks to a mother, Weiss thought, and it made her want to laugh nervously. She ran a hand through her hair.

“How does it feel to get what you deserve?”

“Rich scum!”

“Faunus killer!”

The crowd booed Weiss as she walked. There were also the jammerings of reporters in the mix, shouting equally provocative questions. Despite her best efforts to ignore them, Weiss could see, through the gaps in between her security, the scornful faces of everyone.

A glint of dark hair caught the corner of her eye. Someone in the crowd looked vaguely familiar. But when Weiss turned her head to get a better look, the person had already disappeared, melting into the background.

“Just ignore them,” Ilia said, putting one hand on Weiss’s elbow. The way her other hand slowly drifted in the direction of her whip, however, did not reassure Weiss.

They entered the courtroom to more reporters, the blinding flashes of cameras, the audience stand packed full of even more people. Weiss saw a tall blonde woman with purple eyes down at the front, conversing with a sheep Faunus. A second later and Weiss recognized the woman with purple eyes. That would be Robyn Hill, then.

Robyn Hill looked up at Weiss as Weiss approached her. The cameras clicking in the background went on at an unnerving rhythm. The sheep Faunus’s expression shifted from something sweet and demure to something awfully hostile-looking the instance she caught sight of Weiss.

“Miss Hill,” Weiss said, well-aware of all the gazes on them. “Thank you for coming. I… hope your flight was pleasant.”

“And I sincerely hope that you aren’t wasting my time, Schnee,” Robyn said. Her voice in person, like over the Scroll, was smooth and cold. “That was some tale you spun about being falsely accused.”

“I can assure you that I plan on telling nothing but the truth today,” Weiss said, resisting the urge to shrink under Robyn’s uncompromising gaze. “When this is all over, perhaps both of our organizations can come together to form a partnership. One that will benefit all parties involved.”

“Schmoozing is just in the blood of Atlesians like you. You can’t help yourself, can you?” Robyn sneered. “We’ll see, Schnee. We’ll see.”

It was time to get settled in. The trial would be officially getting underway soon. They went to their designated side of the courtroom. Penny and Ilia stood a little ways behind where Weiss sat as her legal team brought out papers, shuffled them, and began discussing things in worried low tones. On the opposite side of the courtroom, the prosecution’s team looked totally relaxed. Weiss told herself to relax, too. Robyn was here. Things were going to go as planned. It was going to be fine. If she repeated this to herself enough, maybe she would fully believe it.

The judge began speaking. Weiss tried to pay attention but tuned out his words soon enough when, scanning the courtroom, she spotted the unmistakable form of _Ruby_ , sitting next to Ozpin and the rest of the Valesian High Council. Her stomach plummeted.

What was Ruby doing here? With Ozpin?

 _Ruby’s come to see you be convicted,_ a voice whispered. _She’s going to hate you as much as everyone else does, if she doesn’t already._

Oh, gods. 

Weiss was so screwed. 

The judge was introducing Robyn Hill to the court, explaining her function as a truth-arbiter to the jurors. Weiss felt Ruby’s silver eyes lock with hers and a bead of sweat started to trickle down the back of her neck.

This wasn’t really Ruby, she reminded herself. Or—her Ruby from her world, anyways. Ruby’s presence didn’t change anything. It didn’t. What did it matter if Ruby was here?

“That’s that girl you were talking at the fairgrounds,” Ilia muttered.

“Oh, she’s…” Penny sounded surprised.

Weiss forced herself to tear her eyes from Ruby’s just to land on General Ironwood’s grim expression. He was at the very front of the audience, his hands resting on the side of his legs. He had brought his guns. The one consolation to this whole mess, Weiss thought, was that at least the Winter of this world wasn’t at her trial. It was true, wasn’t it? The Winter here hated her. The entire time Weiss had been in this world, she hadn’t heard from Winter once. It was a consolation that she wouldn't have to see the face of the sister who she loved so uncaring towards her.

Weiss couldn’t help herself. She looked at Ruby again. This time, with a small frown, Ruby was the one who broke their eye contact. 

_I miss you,_ Weiss thought. _Tell me everything will be okay. I’m... afraid._

The opening statements passed by in a blur. Then, the judge called her name. Weiss stood up. As she walked to the witness stand, motions totally robotic, it felt like the tiles under her feet were shifting. Something was buzzing in her ears.

_Keep it together. This is fine. You’re okay._

_You’re okay._

Robyn came to her besides the witness stand and took her hand in hers. Her grip was too tight. Not the kind that was comforting at all.

The prosecutor went to the front. 

In a languid, self-assured tone, the prosecutor said, “Miss Schnee. While you were in Vale between the dates of the 6th and the 22nd, you made contact with a woman named Cinder Fall, didn’t you?”

His question hung in the air. Well. Weiss’s mouth was dry. She supposed this was the moment of truth. The first of many. She took a slow breath, aware through the buzzing in her ears that everyone’s eyes were on her, Robyn Hill’s iron-hard grip crushing her hand. 

This had to work. This had to work. Please.

“No,” Weiss said. “I didn’t.”

The prosecutor’s eyes narrowed. With a flick of his finger, he pulled up a holo screen and expanded it to full-size. There was a video being displayed on the screen. The prosecutor played it.

Weiss steeled her face as a person who was evidently her, white hair and blue eyes and all, sitting with one leg crossed over the other, appeared in the video. Cheek cradled against a fist, the Weiss in the video started speaking. She said, _“You’ll have to keep up the Dust robberies or at least a facade of them. Sure, I could shunt you all the Dust you could ever want, enough to blow us to the fucking moon from here to Vacuo, but you know, people will ask questions. They’ll want to know where all of it’s coming from. I don’t want the heat on my back. I’ve got enough of it as is.”_

A low murmur from the background in the video. The Weiss in the video rolled her eyes and continued speaking. _“I meant for the fallout after Beacon and Vale, of course. In that most delicate hour after the destruction is finalized, I need to be positioned perfectly to gain control of Atlas. Isn’t that in our plans, anyways? With you-know-who, or whatever?”_

The video stopped, freezing on a still-frame of the other Weiss Schnee’s blank, bored expression mid-speech. The prosecutor turned towards Weiss now. She could sense that the sentiment in the courtroom was decidedly against her. She refused to let herself look in Ruby’s direction again.

“Miss Schnee, that’s you in the video, isn’t it?” the prosecutor said.

Weiss said, “No, it isn’t.”

The man paused, visibly. After a moment, he pressed on.

“Miss Schnee, would you care to explain to the court what ‘the plans’ you reference in this video are supposed to be?”

Weiss said, in as calm a tone as she could muster, “I just told you. That’s not me. So I can’t explain to the court what those plans that person references are, because I don’t know them either.”

A moment of longer silence in the courtroom, one that was sort of seeping and pervasive. Weiss thought she had made her point and allowed a bit of defiance to finally enter the way she held her head up, even as the nerves in her stomach gave probably their sharpest twist yet. Saying it out loud… Gods. It did sound awfully stupid. That person in the video was obviously Weiss Schnee.

The person who eventually broke the silence was the judge.

“Miss Schnee, need I remind you, you are under oath. Perjury is a serious offense that I’m sure you do not want to add to your long list of charges.”

And Weiss said, “And I’d like to remind you that I’m not lying. I haven’t been lying. Miss Hill can testify as much.”

“...Yes. She’s telling the truth,” Robyn Hill finally said, perhaps reluctantly. She slid a glance at Weiss that was appraising, calculating, and after a moment, lifted their joined hands so the whole courtroom could see them, glowing green. 

An audible murmur rippled through the assembled crowd then. 

“She could be fooling your Semblance, Miss Hill,” the prosecutor scoffed. “It’s not—”

“Objection!” Gray interrupted then, slapping his palm into the table like a character in a courtroom drama. It seemed he had finally shaken out of his stupor at the events that were unfolding and was trying to make himself useful. “Your Honor, that’s hearsay, not to mention completely irrelevant. As we explained to everyone, part of the conditions of accepting Miss Hill as a truth-arbiter included the provision that her judgment would be absolute and not be questioned. The prosecution is obviously attempting to mislead the jury! My client _has_ been telling the truth!”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. And so given the high-profile nature of this case, regardless, I’d like to hear Miss Hill make a brief statement,” the judge responded.

Gray’s jaw dropped. He turned around to look at Ozpin and Ironwood, sitting there with stone-faced expressions, then turned back around and scowled. “Your Honor!” he protested. “High-profile or not, there’s no precedent!“

"So we are setting one," the judge said. "Miss Hill?"

“My Semblance can’t be ‘fooled’,” Robyn announced, tersely. Her grip on Weiss’s hand tightened further. “I don’t have any explicit control over its results. It can’t be consciously or subconsciously manipulated. Right now, my Aura is connected to Weiss Schnee’s. Let the record show that people’s _souls_ can’t tell lies, Your Honor.”

The severity of Robyn's words seem to shock the prosecutor into a momentary silence. _Shit_ , Weiss thought. What was that Robyn had just said? Her Semblance worked through _Aura_? After all that effort to keep a low profile about it, was this really how Weiss was about to be exposed to the world? Weiss hoped nobody in the courtroom was paying attention to that little detail that had just been dropped. But in her field of vision, she saw Ozpin immediately straighten.

Ruby seemed thoroughly engrossed in the ongoing events.

Ilia was staring at Weiss with a deep frown.

The prosecutor said, tone no longer languid but frustrated and angry, “Miss Schnee, you were working together with Cinder Fall to—“

“I wasn’t working with Cinder Fall,” Weiss cut him off.

“Were you not hospitalized just a couple of weeks ago after she attacked you?”

“Objection! That’s irrelevant!”

“It’s not irrelevant. If the defendant truly wasn’t involved with Cinder Fall, then why would Cinder Fall have reason to attack her? We’re establishing their connection!”

“My client has already shown there is no connection, you asked her if she made contact—“

“This goes beyond those dates, but as a general—”

“Why would it go—”

“Overruled,” the judge interrupted the arguing lawyers. “Both of you, control yourselves. Please answer the question, Miss Schnee.”

“I…” Weiss said. “Um.”

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t the one who had been attacked by Cinder. That had been the other Weiss Schnee. The other Weiss had explained it as the two of them double-crossing one another, which was what had then led to a physical conflict. But Weiss couldn’t just say that. If she and Cinder weren’t working together, how could they have double-crossed one another in the first place? Not to mention, the other Weiss had never really explained to her the specifics of the situation—why they had come to blows.

The prosecutor was wearing a very punchable, “gotcha!” expression. Damn it, Weiss had to say _something_. “I don’t know how I ended up in the hospital,” Weiss came up with on the spot.

She chanced a glance at her and Robyn’s joined hands. The tension in her stomach eased a little bit when she saw that their hands were still glowing green. It was true, in a way. Weiss didn’t know how she ended up in the hospital. Or more specifically, she didn’t know how she had ended up switching bodies with the Weiss from this world and ended up in the hospital of this world.

Like that, the prosecutor’s punchable “gotcha!” expression soured. “Are you claiming that you don’t remember?” he demanded.

“I’m saying I don’t know how it happened,” Weiss protested.

“You were not hospitalized for a head injury, correct?”

“Yes, but—"

“But are you saying you actually did suffer a head injury?”

“Wait—”

“Is it possible you don’t remember working with Cinder Fall, but nonetheless, the two of you conspired—”

“Objection, that’s nothing but conjecture—”

“Shut up! The whole world knows that Weiss Schnee’s guilty!” the prosecutor spun around, glaring furiously at Gray. “Beyond _guilty._ Gray, you have your head shoved so far up your ass, you greedy son of a bitch, you would sell out your morals for one Lien—”

“Like you aren’t the same!” Gray snapped. “Stop virtue signalling! What, are you still holding a grudge because of the Samson case all those years ago—”

“Trauma does strange things to people’s minds,” and that was Ozpin, interrupting in a level and calm tone. At once, the courtroom fell silent and everybody’s attention zeroed in on the Headmaster of Beacon. “And I believe that Miss Schnee must have suffered a great deal of trauma due to the incident that had her hospitalized. If I may, I would like to take the opportunity to ask Miss Schnee a few questions myself.”

Before receiving any kind of answer, Ozpin was already standing up and making his way to the front. The prosecutor and Gray exchanged glares but backed down. The judge only nodded. Weiss, for her part, swallowed. Wait. Did Ozpin really have the power to just up and interrupt proceedings like this? If so, how and why? Did Ozpin know she wasn’t the Weiss from this world? There was no way he could have figured it out already, right?

He was getting closer to her than the prosecutor had. This was a bit too close, wasn’t it? She could see the reflection of herself in his spectacles.

“You have an Aura?” Ozpin asked.

“...Yes.”

“Since when?”

“A young age.”

“What’s your Semblance?”

“A family one,” Weiss said. Robyn started to wince and Weiss forced herself to try to relax her now death-grip on Robyn’s hand. “Headmaster, with all due respect, I don’t understand why you’re asking me questions along these lines. As my lawyer has stated multiple times, they are completely irrelevant.”

“Then it shouldn’t hurt for us to entertain them for a while longer, as this trial has already bucked all precedents and procedures,” Ozpin said. He said, “Who unlocked your Aura, MIss Schnee?”

“I…” Weiss swallowed. It had been Winter. But she couldn’t say that. The Winter here who hated her still probably answered to General Ironwood who was in talks with Ozpin, and the moment the Winter here explained that she _hadn’t_ unlocked Weiss’s Aura, the discrepancy would fly a huge red flag, if the fact that Weiss had an Aura at all hadn’t already flown it.

“Well then?” Ozpin said. His voice was perfectly calm. “Could you please answer the question?”

The buzzing in her ears grew louder. So, the cat was coming out of the bag then? Maybe it was better this way. To be discovered as another Weiss Schnee, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…? But at the same time, it made her deathly afraid for some inexplicable reason. Ozpin wasn’t, hadn’t been giving her a good feeling for a long time now.

It felt like Ozpin's eyes were pinning her to the spot, cutting deep into her. “Hey!” Ilia called. In a flash she was strolling across the courtroom to stand between the two of them, Ozpin and Weiss, shoulders squared. “Back off!”

“Was it her who did it, then?” Ozpin tilted his head at Ilia. Ilia tensed. And then in a quieter voice, probably so quiet that only the four of them up there at the witness stand could hear, Ozpin asked, “Are you Weiss Schnee?”

Ilia gave Ozpin a sharp glance at the question. “Yes, I’m Weiss,” Weiss said, weakly. The green light joining her and Robyn’s hand flickered. 

“Are you _really_?” Ozpin said. 

“I am.”

“Are you the person everyone thinks you are?” Ozpin said. “What are you hiding?”

“Nothing,” Weiss said. “Nothing important, I mean.”

“...You’re lying,” Robyn said, their hands flashing red. Ilia looked at Weiss now, the disappointment growing dark and obvious on her face.

“It’s hard to explain,” Weiss scrambled. “None of this is… It's not related to the trial.”

“Right,” Ilia said. “Of course not.” 

“Regarding the information I asked you for before,” Ozpin said. “Let’s make a new deal since I’ve come to understand the situation a little better. You’ll agree to tell me everything you know and more, and I’ll get you acquitted of all charges. We can end this trial right here, right now, and you walk away a completely free woman. Or, we can continue with this farce, and despite this clever trick of yours, have you end up being convicted. I don’t believe we’re not on the same side, whoever you are. We can trust one another. So? What will it be?”

For her part, Weiss didn’t say anything.

It was difficult to speak when you’ve just been shot by an arrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not super happy with how this chapter turned out, but the next one should be more fun :)
> 
> Decided to go ahead and tag Ilia/Weiss, since it feels like there's something headed in that direction. Didn't really plan for it originally but I guess I wrote myself into it lol
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

The arrow hit Weiss somewhere below her collarbone with enough force to jerk her out of Robyn’s hand. It shattered immediately against her Aura but still Weiss went tumbling to the floor along with the pieces of the arrow. For a moment, she didn’t know what was happening. She was still busy being caught up in processing Ozpin’s words. 

_He knows. He has to know already. Tell him everything, and maybe you can help each other. There’s no reason to be so antagonistic toward one another. In your world, you trusted him implicitly._

And also, _Wait. I’ve been shot._

_I’ve been shot?_

The area the arrow had impacted was tender and radiated pain. It was the area right above her heart. Weiss’s heartrate began to pick up as her bearings came back to her. Wait. Someone had just tried to kill her, not at all unsubtly at that. If she had actually been the Weiss who didn’t have an Aura, she would be bleeding out all over the floor now.

The fragments of the arrow… Black glass? Molten and glowing?

 _Cinder Fall,_ Weiss thought, instinctively. _Cinder Fall!_

The second arrow would have made mincemeat of her throat but Ilia slashed it out of the air with her whip before it could hit her. Then there came a superheated fireball, the heat careening overhead, a low whistle, and an explosion.

When Weiss came to again, fragments of the ceiling were falling onto the floor this way and that. She was in the corner of the room, laying behind an overturned table. She turned over. What little she could see of the courtroom was utter chaos, swarming with an onslaught of Atlesian drones. The sounds of gunfire made her ears ring.

“Stay down,” Ilia hissed from beside her. “I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Half of the Valesian Council has just been murdered, Penny’s disappeared, and those stupid machines are attacking everyone in sight.”

“How is that possible?” Weiss said, just in time to flinch as she witnessed an Atlesian Knight-200 gun down a slew of screaming people trying to flee. “Is it the… the bq virus? Wasn’t that detailed in the documentation that was uploaded?”

“Yeah, well clearly Atlas didn’t have the foresight to patch their bugs,” Ilia said. Her forehead glistened with a light sheen of sweat. “We should be fine with the Headmaster and General here, there’s plenty of competent Huntsman and Huntresses, too, we just need to wait it out until the situation gets under control.”

Weiss’s chest ached. She touched the area where the arrow had struck her. “Cinder Fall is here. She shot me,” Weiss said, almost in disbelief. “She tried to kill me. She’s _here._ ”

“Not anymore. She escaped,” Ilia said, tersely. “She’s the reason there’s a giant hole in the ceiling right now.”

More screams reached Weiss’s ears. “We need to help—”

“No. We’re not going anywhere. We’re staying put.”

“But people are getting _hurt_ —”

“We’ll just get in the way.”

Weiss bit her tongue. At Beacon, she had learned the importance of being unselfish. In training to be a Huntress, what she really had been doing was training to protect others, to put their safety above any of her own desires. Still, Ilia might’ve had a point. She couldn’t forget that Ozpin and Ironwood were also here, Robyn Hill, others, and they were the fully-fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses, and surely they would fix things soon? This was different from the Fall of Beacon, they were more prepared across the board, most everyone was alive and well, there were no Grimm...

Then a horrible thought occurred to Weiss. It made her instantly shoot to her feet against Ilia’s protests. Her eyes frantically scanned the courtroom, hoping against everything that what she thought wouldn't be true. Bodies. Blood everywhere. Weiss’s eyes landed on red that didn’t belong to blood but a familiar cloak crumpled to the floor. Her heart stopped.

“Ruby!”

“Wait—”

Weiss leapt over the table and broke into a run. Atlesian drones turned in synchronicity in her direction, sensors locking onto her, but Weiss deflected their bullets with ease using her glyphs. Who cared if everyone knew her secret, that she wasn’t the right Weiss Schnee, when everything had already gone to shit and no no no _Ruby—_

She skidded to a stop besides Ruby’s body. She turned Ruby over. She felt for the younger girl’s pulse, found it, and her whole body shuddered with relief—okay. Okay, okay, okay. Ruby was alive. Ruby was fine. Check her over—no obvious injuries. Just unconscious. 

Drones advanced on them, still firing. A few bullets broke through Weiss’s glyphs and glanced off her Aura. The bullets hurt and would definitely leave bruises, but nothing permanent. The critical question was how to get Ruby out of here and to safety. Without Myrtenaster nor Dust, Weiss didn’t have any offensive capability.

Then, a loud crunch as Ilia tore through a row of the machines and materialized besides Weiss. 

“You idiot!” Ilia said, furious. Her whip crackled with electricity as it shortened to its rapier form. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“Help me,” Weiss said. “Ilia, I—”

“Who is she?” Ilia interrupted Weiss with a scowl. Then, Ilia shook her head. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. You carry her. I’ll cover you.”

Weiss slung Ruby over her shoulders. They carefully made their way back to the corner of the room, Ilia fighting off the drones with a natural ease and ferocity that surprised Weiss. Clearly, this wasn’t her first time dealing with Atlesian drones. Behind the table, they settled Ruby onto the floor and Weiss checked the younger girl over again. In the background, the sounds of gunfire were slowly petering out.

Weiss’s breathing evened out a little. Ilia rounded on her. “You could’ve just waited,” she said, testily. “She would’ve been fine. I told you things were going to be under control.”

“I was worried she was hurt!” Weiss said.

“And you weren’t worried about getting hurt yourself?” Ilia challenged. “Is that it?”

“You can see that I’m okay—”

“Yeah, barely, but if I hadn’t stepped in—“

“I couldn’t just leave her there—”

“Or you could have not _risked_ your life in the first place—”

Ruby stirred and the two of them broke off. “Huh…?” Silver eyes blinked blearily at the ceiling. Ruby propped herself up with her elbows. “What’s going on?”

“Stay down, Red,” Ilia said, “unless you want to get shot, too.”

“How are you feeling?” Weiss fretted. “Are you okay?”

“...Weiss?” Ruby said, looking at her, eyebrows furrowed, and for a moment, Ruby sounded so close and heartbreakingly familiar Weiss could have almost forgotten that this wasn’t her Ruby. Then, Ruby’s eyes slid past hers to what was going on in the courtroom and widened in shock. Ruby straightened. “We have to help!”

“Gods, the both of you two are so fucking—” Ilia said. She put a hand down onto Ruby’s cloak and pinned it to the floor, preventing Ruby from climbing up. The scales on her face flared an angry red and her eyes turned pink. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“I’m a Huntress-in-training!” Ruby said, struggling to free herself. “Let go of me!”

“Well, I don’t see your weapon on you,” Ilia said. “And I’m not going to risk my neck for you again when I don’t even know who the hell you are, so you’re not going anywhere.”

“Ruby, please,” Weiss said, and Ruby stopped struggling, looked at her. 

Ilia took a deep breath and relaxed her grip on Ruby’s cloak. She massaged her forehead as her face gradually returned to its normal color. 

“You can fight,” Ruby said to Ilia. “You have your weapon.”

“Maybe,” Ilia said. “But above everything else, my priority is to protect W… my boss. How do you two know each other again? The first time I saw you was at the fairgrounds.”

“We met there after the tournament for the first time, too,” Ruby said. “We talked for a while. Beyond that, though, we don’t… we don’t actually know each other.”

Weiss pushed past her own instinctive woundedness to say, “Yes.”

“Actually, what I think you mean is ‘no’. Because I call BS. The way you behaved just now isn’t the way anyone would behave towards a stranger,” Ilia rebutted, sharply. “I have the feeling that one or both of you isn’t telling the truth.”

“Huh?” Ruby said, sounding puzzled, but Weiss shrank back because she knew that Ilia was of course talking about her. “The way we behaved?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Weiss tried. “Ilia, now’s not the time.”

“It _does_ matter,” Ilia spat. “Now’s not the time? Then when will it ever be ‘the time’? You promised you would clear the air but, what, has that just become another lie, too? You aren’t—”

A huge metallic crash as another part of the ceiling caved. Then heavy thuds, the clunking of more machinery. Ruby let out a squeak. Ilia groaned. Weiss felt her insides freeze with a terrible sense of déjà vu.

“Atlesian Paladins,” Weiss breathed. Flashbacks to the Fall of Beacon ran through her mind. “No, don’t tell me. I know this can’t be happening again.” 

“Again?” Ilia repeated, just in time for the table cover to be ripped away and sent flying. The Paladin bore down on them, a huge hunk of machine with gun-arms bared threateningly. Suddenly, their corner of the room went from a relatively safe-seeming position to a place where they were trapped. 

“Go go go!” Ruby shoved Weiss. The three of them scrambled into movement. “We need to get out of here!”

In total, Weiss counted six Paladins that had been dropped from who knows where and into the courtroom. Five of them were turned away from Ruby, Weiss, and Ilia, facing what was probably Ironwood and Ozpin and whoever was still left alive in the courtroom (Weiss ignored the horrible wrenching sensation at those words, _whoever was still left alive_ ). Those five Paladins formed a barrier that seemed momentarily impenetrable. The last remaining Paladin, meanwhile, fired at them.

Weiss summoned her Glyphs. Weiss felt each jarring impact of the Paladins’ missiles as if they had physically struck her. Her glyphs weren’t meant to be used as shields, really, they were platforms, better for maneuverability, but in a pinch she could make it work. It was probably good that she had been keeping up practicing with her Semblance in secret after all, who could’ve known it would come in so handy—

“Come on!” Ruby said. Due to her own Semblance, she was far more nimble than Ilia and Weiss, and she pulled them into the hallway besides the judge’s bench leading to the rest of the courthouse. There were trails of blood here, too, suggesting others had tried fleeing this way when things had started going bad, and the drones had followed. 

Weiss came to a sudden stop when she saw the body lying in the shadow of a dimly flickering light.

“Oh,” she said, staring down at Gray’s slack face.

Of course, Weiss had no love for the man. But even if he had done a lot of questionable things as her lawyer, and likely countless other questionable things that she didn’t even know about, at the end of the day, he had tried to help her in a certain kind of way, had done what she had asked of him, and she could say truthfully that he had never been a person who had judged her or derided her or thought especially poorly of her. And now, just like that, he was dead. He didn’t deserve to be gunned down like this, in what she couldn’t interpret as anything besides a sudden and violent terrorist attack. No one deserved to die like this.

Ruby’s expression flashed with an old sadness that didn’t fit her age. “Unlucky bastard,” Ilia commented. 

What should Weiss do? Close his eyes? Tuck his body somewhere where it wouldn’t be disturbed? All of a sudden, Weiss thought about how she had never asked about his personal life or his family, how in the days leading up to the trial she had been increasingly short with him. It had been all too easy to just shove him in a category, a sleazy lawyer, a no good man who she just had to deal with due to her circumstances, and not think too deeply about whether or not there was actually more to it than that, and now it really didn’t matter if she did.

The hallway shook. There was the screech of metal bending. In disbelief, the three of them looked behind them and saw the Paladin trying to cram its way through. For some reason, it seemed like this particular machine was fixated on them.

“‘Dead people receive more flowers than the living because regret is stronger than gratitude’,” Ilia said. “You quoted that to me once. Leave him behind.”

“I don’t know why I feel so sad,” Weiss said. She gave Gray’s body one last look, shook her head, and per Ilia’s words, made herself keep moving.

The hallway gradually opened up, much to their disadvantage, as it allowed the Paladin to stretch out to its full height and pick up speed as it chased them. A group of Atlesian Knight drones seemingly popped up out of nowhere, firing upon them, and they were forced to take a sharp corner. 

“Are we going to keep running?”

“I can’t fight all of them! Where’s the exit to this stupid building?”

Another group of Atlesian Knight drones. Weiss tried something she never had before: summoning a platform Glyph at a ninety degree angle to the ground, then making it move through the air. The Glyph smashed the drones into the side of the wall like a battering ram. Weiss shuddered at the feeling of crumpled machinery. Somehow, that had been more unpleasant than blocking missiles. Well, at least she was opening up her Semblance to hitherto unexplored possibilities, even if she was definitely going to get questions about how she was doing this later. 

“Wait! Are either of your Scrolls working?” Ruby asked. Oh, of course! Weiss checked her pockets, no, she didn’t have hers, turn to Ilia, who fumbled.

“Yes, why—”

“Then I can call my scythe from the weapons lockers! Are you a Beacon student do you have the app—”

“What the fuck I have to download the _app—”_

They turned another corner. “In here!” and now it was Weiss’s turn to yank Ilia and Ruby through a set of doors. A second later and there were the sounds of the Paladin tearing down the hallway where they had just been. For such a large machine, it moved surprisingly fast. 

Weiss had pulled them into another courtroom, this one empty. It was bizarre to see all the stands and chairs arranged in neat rows, untouched, when even now she could feel the distant tremors of the battle happening in the other courtroom. Ruby’s fingers frantically typed away on Ilia’s Scroll. Ilia changed her weapon to its rapier form.

“I’m out of Dust,” Ilia dropped a curse. “Fantastic.”

“Okay, okay, any second now,” Ruby said. She had barely finished speaking before a weapon’s locker burst through the side of the wall, skidding to a stop in front of them. “Yes!”

While Ruby went to retrieve Crescent Rose, an idea occurred to Weiss. She picked up Ilia’s Scroll which Ruby had dropped. The screen glowed up at her. She bit her lip. Should she...

In her world, she wanted to be a Huntress. She wanted to save lives. In this world, despite the person everyone thought she was now, it wasn’t like she could just forget that part of her. Even if it was ultimately pointless and she could no longer be a Huntress, she could still be useful. Being a Huntress was about more than just the title and the training and the name anyways. It was about being a worthwhile, good person. 

Weiss made her decision. Ruby stopped in front of her and Ilia. “I’m going to fight,” Ruby declared. Crescent Rose unfolded in her hands in a smooth motion, the red metal seemingly gleaming with the determination of its owner. “You two can stay here if you want, but I’m not going to just wait things out.”

“I’m coming with you, too,” Weiss responded, shouldering her resolve as she met the faintly surprised eyes of the girl who looked exactly like her partner. “I just need a little bit more time. But I’m coming.”

“What? Are you out of your mind?” Ilia threw her hands up in the air. “No. Enough. I’ll go with her, if you feel so bad, but you’re not going anywhere.”

“I’m not defenseless,” Weiss said. She felt the frustration leaking into her voice without her wanting to and tried to control it. It wasn’t Ilia’s fault that things had gone wrong, that Ilia thought she couldn’t fight. “You don’t have to try so hard to protect me all the time.”

“I’m not letting you die,” Ilia snapped. “I’m glad it looks like you have such a handle on your Semblance considering how long it’s been, but this isn’t just practice, this isn’t something you can talk your way through if things go badly, this is life and death!”

 _Considering how long it’s been._ With a jolt, Weiss realized that it wasn’t the problem of her having an Aura or Semblance in themselves that was making Ilia resistant, that Ilia wasn’t really surprised she had those things. Why? How was that possible? She remembered the other Weiss’s testiness about the subjects, her secretiveness, and also the hints and allusions to a past shared with Ilia, the details of which had not been fully revealed to Weiss. But it was like she had said earlier, now wasn’t the time to dwell on those things, there were more immediately pressing matters.

“Ilia,” Weiss said, firmly. “I’m not going to die. You’re right. I did promise you that I wouldn’t let things stay unresolved. But I’m not going to just stand back and do nothing, either.”

A second weapons locker broke through the side of the wall then and skidded to a stop in front of them. Weiss stepped up to the locker and opened the door. Inside the locker, she found a sword in a large black sheath. 

“That’s Blake’s,” Ruby said, mouth slightly agape as Weiss took out Gambol Shroud, hefted the sheathed weapon in her hands. “How did you…?”

“I’ll explain later,” Weiss said. She hesitated, then added, “Everything that I know. Who I really am.” 

Weiss went to give Ilia’s Scroll back to her. Their hands brushed for a moment as she did and Ilia took a step back, putting distance between them. Ilia’s mouth had thinned. Her eyes were hard. It felt like she was seeing right through Weiss.

“It’s not like I really get a say in this either way, do I?” Ilia said. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

++ 

She was crying in her sleep. Neopolitan. Weiss stood over the woman’s prone form on the couch, cup of coffee in hand, eyebrows furrowed and wondering if she should say something.

Hm. Hmmmmm. The situation was so peculiar, Weiss didn’t particularly like it. 

One week ago, in a night in the pouring rain, Weiss had followed/been coerced into following one Neopolitan, former henchman of master criminal Roman Torchwick, to a rundown apartment at the outskirts of the city. The former inhabitants of the apartment, Weiss had deduced, had probably died in the chaos of the Fall of Beacon, leaving Neopolitan free range to take over the place as a temporary refuge. It was a genius idea for getting housing, actually, and Weiss made a note to herself to look into doing something similar for the future. As for Roman Torchwick himself, however, the man had mysteriously vanished. No one had seen him since the Fall, which was now dated to a little over a month ago.

The two of them had shared a conversation in the living room, Weiss sitting in an uncomfortable hardback chair, Neopolitan looming over her with her parasol brandished threateningly. In hindsight, maybe it had been less of a conversation than an interrogation.

“Why would I know anything about what happened to Torchwick?” Weiss frowned. “I haven’t seen him in… I don’t know.” Actually, the Weiss whose body she was occupying had probably never seen the man before, period. “Yeah. I can’t help you.”

 _Don’t lie to me, you have to know something,_ Neopolitan’s scowl would have been enough to frighten a lesser woman, but Weiss remained unphased. Neopolitan tore a new page out of the notebook, wrote a new sentence on it in an angry scrawl, and shoved the paper up to Weiss’s face. _The last time I saw Roman it was on top of an airship where he was fighting with your partner, Little Red._

“My partner, Little Red?” Weiss repeated, confused for a second. She let out a long-suffering noise when the pieces clicked together. Of course this had something to do with Ruby goddamn Rose. Even now, after Weiss had left her, that silver-eyed girl was still somehow causing trouble for her. “Look, I’m sorry, but all that means to me is that I _really_ can’t help you.”

Neopolitan responded with a new page, an even angrier scrawl. _You’re making it very difficult not to snap your neck right now_ . The words ‘very difficult’ were underlined. Neopolitan took Weiss’s chin in her hand, tilted it back, and squeezed. The pink and brown of her eyes switched places as she then ordered, _Talk_.

“...This would be much more threatening if your hand wasn’t so small,” Weiss wasn’t able to stop herself from commenting. “Also you’re shorter than I am, so the height difference right now, even with me sitting, is not doing many favors for you.” At that, expression not changing in the slightest, Neopolitan had promptly slammed the heel of her boot into Weiss’s still broken hand.

Good times.

After Weiss had passed out from the pain and woken up again, they had continued their conversation with Weiss trying to be a little more helpful.

“Ruby Rose didn’t tell me anything about a fight with Torchwick,” Weiss said. “I also may or may not have decimated our relationship, so I won't be able to find out anything from her regarding Torchwick either.” Not that she was going to go talk to Ruby Rose at all, even under threat of death.

 _It doesn’t matter, I don’t need_ you _to do anything, since you’re obviously useless,_ Neopolitan formed a grim smile that completely didn’t meet her eyes. _I’m a more hands-on kind of woman myself. What I need from you is where I can find Little Red._

“What are you going to do to Ruby Rose?”

 _Oh, nothing too bad,_ Neopolitan’s grim smile grew wider. _Crack some skulls. Maybe cut a few fingers off. The classic works. I’m going to get what I want._

“Really? Well, that’s great,” Weiss said. “Do you have a map?” 

_Why do you ask?_

“I don’t really remember her exact address, but I can get you the general area,” Weiss said. “It wasn’t a bad neighborhood, if that helps.”

 _You aren’t upset?_ Neopolitan frowned.

“Should I be?” Weiss said. The thought of Ruby Rose dead gave her a strange pause, a weird hesitation that hadn’t been there before, but still her feelings towards the silver-eyed girl were overwhelmingly negative, and the pause was easy enough to push aside. “I mean, good luck, I guess, all the more power to you if it works out.”

Neopolitan had seemed somewhat confused by her words but hadn’t done much more than study the circled area of the map then knock Weiss out again. When Weiss had woken up for the second time, it had been morning and the mute woman had vanished from the apartment, having taken Weiss’s bag with all her money and things with her as well. Weiss had decided to take the event in as much stride as she could. Anyways, it was a nice apartment, and it would be a good place to hang low for a while before figuring out what her next step was, and checking the fridge and the other rooms, she saw that the place wasn’t unfurnished nor unsupplied.

That had been a week ago. Since then, Weiss had had a relatively peaceful time. She slept whenever she wanted to sleep, ate whenever she wanted to eat, did whatever she wanted to do without having to talk or think or feel. The only things that slightly disturbed the experience of the normal, pointless life she had always wanted were the nightmares. And also the dreams that weren’t nightmares but still really weird, strange dreams of what she could only presume to be the other Weiss Schnee’s past memories, fighting giant knights and giant Nevermores and giant Paladins and other giant what have yous, fragments of images of Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long and even more people seeping in between blank spaces. And of course Weiss couldn’t forget her hand, which was still painfully broken and probably healing in a misaligned position, if it was healing at all. The hand was a bit of a fly in the ointment.

The most immediate thing pressing Weiss in the moment though was how, for whatever reason, Neopolitan had decided to return to the apartment after a week of being gone. Probably, Neopolitan hadn’t expected Weiss to stick around at the place she had been coerced into following Neopolitan to and gotten herself beaten up at, but the joke was on her, since Weiss had rather enjoyed the whole ambience of the place and planned to stick around for as long as possible. As had been painfully demonstrated for Weiss during their last interaction, though, Neopolitan could definitely kick Weiss’s ass at a moment’s notice and leave her out to hang and dry. Yes, the situation was very peculiar, and Weiss ought to handle it carefully.

Weiss put her cup of growing lukewarm coffee on the coffee table besides the bowler hat which hadn’t been there the night before. Yeah. That was Torchwick’s hat. Since Neopolitan had returned alone and was currently crying in her sleep, Weiss would Occam’s Razor the scenario. Yeah. Torchwick was definitely superbly dead. Which was a shame, because Weiss had rather liked him, as much as Weiss, the way she was, could like people.

Weiss sat down on the couch. Her movement disturbed the cushions and Neopolitan stirred. Then Neopolitan shot straight-up. Her hand leapt to her side, and Weiss congratulated herself for having the foresight of having removed and hidden Neopolitan’s weapon.

“Hello,” Weiss said. “You’re back. I take it your field trip didn’t go well, then.”

The first thing Neapolitan did was glare at her. There were tears and scuff marks all over her suit, not to mention her eyes were rimmed and raw-looking. Her hair was in disarray and her necklace was missing. Good times, Weiss thought with a bit of satisfaction to herself. Good times.

Next, Neopolitan made a gesture at Weiss that she couldn’t interpret. Weiss didn’t need to be a genius (though she was basically one) to figure out that it had been a rude gesture. Weiss tried to hand over the notebook she had prepared for communicating, but Neopolitan simply batted it away. The notebook went flying with a flutter and landed with a soft ‘pat’ on the carpeted floor.

Finally, from her pocket, Neopolitan retrieved a Scroll. Weiss’s Scroll, Weiss recognized, that Neopolitan had last stolen along with the rest of her things. Neopolitan started typing away on it.

 _WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE YOU PASTY ASS BITCH?_ The words were written in all caps, bolded, shoved in her face. _GTFO BEFORE I DISLOCATE YOUR RIBCAGE._

“Oh, so you didn’t leave me behind to house-sit for you after all?” Weiss arched an eyebrow. She adjusted her position so she was more comfortably ensconced on the couch, offered a lazy smirk. “And here I was, trying my best to keep the place in perfect condition for you to come back to.”

Neopolitan wrote, _YOUR INFORMATION WAS SHIT. IT WAS IN THE COMPLETELY WRONG PART OF THE CITY. YOU WASTED SO MUCH OF MY TIME, ASSHOLE._

“But you still found her, I’m assuming. Ruby Rose."

_HER AND HER FUCKING FRIENDS._

“They beat you up?"

_FOUR VERSUS ONE IS HARDLY A FAIR FIGHT. BUT I’VE FACED WORSE ODDS AND I’LL GET THEM SOON ENOUGH. THEY’RE HANGING AROUND TOWN STILL LOOKING FOR YOU. AND YOU KNOW WHAT, I THINK I OUGHT TO DELIVER THEM YOUR PRETTY LITTLE HEAD AS A GIFT. I THINK LITTLE RED ESPECIALLY WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT._

“I hate to say something like ‘I told you so’,” Weiss said. “Because I mean, I didn’t really tell you anything. But wasn’t it obvious that you would lose if you fought them head-on? Your repertoire isn’t direct combat, you’re more hit and go and fight again another time, Semblance subterfuge nonsense, and most importantly, you’re also normally not so, if you’ll let me take a stab at the matter, emotionally compromised.”

Neopolitan stood up. Every inch of her effused rage. _WHAT THE_ FUCK _WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?_

“More than you think,” Weiss said. She glanced at the hat on the table and continued, “My condolences. I know you two were close. My guess is you got angry when you found the hat, so angry you couldn’t control yourself and had to immediately try to murder Ruby Rose even if the situation was suboptimal, and then decided to come crawling back here when you lost. Yes, things probably went something like that.”

 _I’LL MURDER YOU_ , Neopolitan didn’t say, but Weiss got the gist of the intended message when the mute woman picked up the cup of coffee off the table and splashed its contents directly into Weiss’s face. Then she stormed off elsewhere. 

Right, Weiss supposed that had gone about as well as it could’ve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a huge dopamine rush after the last chapter, thanks so much to everyone who commented! Wow I never imagined so many people would read my fic! Would be enough to warm even other Weiss’s cold undead heart ❤️
> 
> I upped the rating of the story to mature, which I probably should have done a while ago, if only for all the swearing that’s been going on. Did some more outlining, got some good ideas, and finally figured out the way I want the ending to go, though ofc that’s way off in the future. We’re probably like, a fifth of the way through the plot? More or less?
> 
> Current situation of the characters:
> 
> Weiss: i could really use myrtenaster right now wonder what happened to my baby :(
> 
> other Weiss: :p this apartment’s cool finders keepers
> 
> Neo: >:(
> 
> Ilia: >>:( (
> 
> other Ruby: :0 guys what's happening i'm confused
> 
> other Blake and other Yang: *obliviously enjoying a nice date*
> 
> Hope you all enjoy reading!


	13. Chapter 13

“This is a lot heavier than it looks,” Blake remarked. She held Myrtenaster up at eye height, looking down the length of the blade. “See, I knew you had to be packing some serious muscle behind that dainty appearance.”

“Myrtenaster’s metal has to be dense in order to support all the Dust I channel through it,” Weiss rolled her eyes. She balanced Gambol Shroud in her hands, unsure of where to begin with the “Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe” class weapon (as Ruby had so lovingly dubbed it), and said, “You know, Gambol Shroud isn’t much of a lightweight either.”

“How do I do that thing where you spin the Dust chambers?” 

“There should be a switch under your index finger.”

“Can’t find it.”

“Oh, right, you’re right-handed. Near the base of your thumb, then.”

Blake pressed the switch. Myrtenaster’s Dust chamber spun. Blake pressed it again. “Huh. I could do this all day,” Blake grinned.

Across the practice field, Yang was yelling something indecipherable as she lost her balance and inadvertently sliced a huge gouge into the ground using Crescent Rose. Ruby yelled something equally indecipherable as she went careening backwards from Ember Celica’s recoil. Weiss, meanwhile, awkwardly removed the katana from Gambol’s sheathe.

“At least those two are having a good time,” Weiss said. The katana blade was about a foot shorter than Myrtenaster’s rapier blade and she eyed its point dubiously.

“What, and we’re not?” Blake said, spinning Myrtenaster’s Dust chambers again, looking all too pleased with herself at the blur of colors.

“Careful you don’t blow yourself off the side of a cliff,” Weiss warned.

“Psh, I know how to handle myself around Dust.”

“Yeah, you stole quite a bit of it back in your heyday, did you?”

The two of them glared at each other for as long as they could, which wasn’t very long. Weiss broke first, looking away with an undignified snort. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blake’s bow twitch. 

“Don’t pretend you don’t love me, Schnee,” Blake said, smugly. 

“You’re pushing your luck, Belladonna.”

Blake, seemingly growing bored of Myrtenaster’s Dust chamber spinning function, started fiddling with actually applying the Dust to the blade. The Faunus let out a whoop when she managed to create a wall of Weiss’s trademark ice spikes, and Weiss tried not to feel too offended that Blake had pulled it off perfectly on the first try. Weiss continued to handle Gambol Shroud far more conservatively, giving a few test swings, wary of Yang and Ruby’s escalating levels of chaos on the opposite end of the field. She held up Gambol’s sheathe and asked, “Tell me, what am I supposed to do with this thing?”

“Dual wield?” Blake suggested. “The edge of it is sharp.”

“I don’t know how to do that. What about the ribbon?”

“You’ve seen me in action. You can use it to throw Gambol around like a kusarigama. It’s unconventional as hell, but useful for catching opponents off guard.”

“Okay, I won’t be doing that either.”

“There’s also the pistol-mode you could try out,” Blake said. She smiled at Weiss’s disgruntled expression and added, “Or maybe not. If we’ve come to the situation where you’re trying to use Gambol seriously, I suggest you just stick with the katana. You’re the only person I know besides Jaune whose weapon isn’t also a gun.”

“See, I’m not sure I like what you’re trying to imply there,” Weiss narrowed her eyes.

“Not trying to imply anything,” Blake shrugged, her smile growing wider. She leveled Myrtenaster and took up a mock-ready fencing position, back-straight, one arm folded behind her back. “I’ve already got a handle on your weapon, but you’re still struggling with mine. Want to spar and prove who’s the best swordsman once and for all?”

In the present, Weiss gave past-Blake a mental word of thanks for that impromptu lesson on Gambol Shroud’s mechanics all that time ago, on some distant hazy Team RWBY bonding day, as she slashed her way through another row of Atlesian drones. Even though Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud were different kinds of swords, at least they were both swords, and Gambol was not at all half-bad for conducting glyphs and Dust. Weiss also gave present-Blake, the Blake of this world, a mental apology, because she would _not_ be happy when she found out that Weiss had basically stolen Gambol Shroud from under her nose, especially considering that Weiss was, well, Weiss Schnee. Weiss held onto a cautiously optimistic hope that Blake wouldn’t notice her weapon missing before Weiss would be able to return it, but given her recent spat of luck and the fact that stealing a Huntress's was tantamount to sacrilege, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She could only hope that this Blake would forgive her. Eventually.

Weiss leapt backwards to avoid a slew of gunfire, putting a little backflip into the motion that wasn’t strictly necessary just because she could, and found herself back to back with Ruby. It was hard to believe that this was the first time the two of them had ever fought together when they were so in sync.

“Your Semblance is awesome!” Ruby exclaimed.

“Thanks,” Weiss said, unable to help the flush that came to her cheeks. “Um, yours is pretty cool, too.”

“Thanks!”

One after another more Atlesian Knights continued to under their combined onslaught. Drones definitely couldn’t compare to some of the things she’d fought in the past, but damn did she and Ruby work well together. Weiss felt a slight tinge of regret for the way she had behaved in the past towards the Ruby of her world. If she hadn’t been so immature and abrasive back then, to what lengths could their partnership have grown? How much better could the two of them have fought together? Those times at Beacon already felt like another life ago. They _were_ another life ago.

Farther away down the hall, Ilia took a couple bad hits that made her Aura flicker. By the time Ruby and Weiss made their way to her, however, she had recovered neatly. They watched Ilia jam her rapier blade through the chestplate of an Atlesian Knight with more force than strictly necessary. The drone, the last one of the bunch, toppled to the floor. 

“That’s that done, then,” Ilia said, breathing slightly heavier than usual. She ripped Lightning Lash out of the Atlesian Knight, glanced at Ruby and Weiss, and scowled at the sight of the pair of them together. “Are you satisfied playing hero yet, Red?”

“We just have the big one left,” Ruby said, referring to the Paladin which was still stomping around somewhere. Then she cocked her head, frowned a little. “Also, uh, my name’s Ruby.”

“Sure. Good to know,” Ilia said, brusquely. “I guess I won’t be able to convince you to leave the ‘big one’ for the professionals to handle either.”

“We can defeat it,” Weiss interjected, confidently. They had done it successfully before. At the Fall of Beacon, too, she had fought Paladins. Then she remembered that first time which had required the full four members of team RWBY, and that the two members who had actually done the hard work of dealing the finishing blow were the ones not present, and that this Ruby was, of course, not her Ruby, and she paused. “Probably.”

“Really making me question if you actually don’t want to die,” Ilia muttered. Her eyes widened. “Speak of the devil.”

The Paladin, looking no worse for wear than when they had last seen it, had simply crashed right through a nearby wall, sending debris and dust flying everywhere. It turned on them, red sensors glaring, and fired a slew of missiles. They managed to dodge out of the way the best they could, but given that they were still stuck in the courthouse, there really wasn’t much space to maneuver. Weiss felt the heat of the explosions reach her face, the sound ringing in her ears. Gambol Shroud’s unfamiliar hilt was slick in her hand.

“We need to draw it outside,” Weiss grimaced. “No angles to attack it in here but head on, it’s way too tight.”

“That’s way easier said than done,” Ilia said. “Do you have any more Dust you can give me?” 

“I have a plan!” Ruby said, with a gleam to her eyes that Weiss (unfortunately) recognized all too well. “You two, prepare to follow my lead! Come at me, bad boy!”

In a blur of rose petals, Ruby flashed directly in the direction of the Paladin. Weiss fumbled for the Dust cartridges in Gambol Shroud to hand off to Ilia, trying to keep her hands steady, even as Ilia voiced their mutual disbelief. Just because Weiss had become familiar with the way Ruby’s ‘plans’ usually panned out didn’t make her any less desensitized to them. That reckless, headstrong _dolt—_

“She’s crazy,” Ilia said. The Paladin turned its head away from the two of them for the moment, distracted, too busy swatting in annoyance at Ruby’s mid air red blur, and Weiss’s stress levels reflexively spiked. “Gods!” 

“I know, I know,” Weiss groaned. The yellow Dust cartridge came out, she gave it to Ilia, and put Gambol back together. “Here—”

A near miss, way too close for comfort, but the Paladin’s arm broke firmly through the wall behind where Ruby had just been, making it crumble and reveal the afternoon sunlight. “Over this way!” Ruby materialized briefly to take a taunting, sniping shot, before disappearing through the break in the wall to the outside. The Paladin, which was probably supposed to follow Ruby, shrugged off the snipe without so much as a reaction, and instead moved to advance on Ilia and Weiss. It fired again, this time with its energy guns. 

Ilia parried an energy bolt with a surprised curse. “What’s the plan again?”

“We follow her lead!” Weiss said. She summoned a line of glyphs to the break in the wall, a trickle of sweat beading down her brow at the exertion. “And now we run fast!”

At least it was in the spirit of the things Ruby normally came up with. Weiss’s Aura at this point was admittedly low enough a single hit would take it out, and here she was, rushing headlong at the Paladin as if she could afford taking that hit. Weiss leapt over the swing of the Paladin’s arm, Ilia wrapped her whip around the arm and used it as leverage to go under, a crackle of electricity buzzing the air as she shocked it, and then they were clearing the break outside as well rolling to come up besides Ruby.

“You guys good?” Ruby asked, brandishing Crescent Rose’s sharp edge as the Paladin also emerged onto the open street. “Ready?”

After that, it was simply a game of slowly whittling the Paladin’s defenses down. Weiss provided support from a distance while Ruby and Ilia, no longer encumbered by the space disadvantage, got to work. Ruby with her scythe, whirring around the Paladin’s legs and carving off huge chunks of metal at a time, Ilia taking advantage of blind spots, targeting the exposed machinery Ruby had left behind with pinpoint ease. They were a brilliant duo with nimble, quick strikes, always on the move, leaving no opportunity to retaliate. The Paladin had no chance.

At last, with a huge, resounding crash, the Paladin toppled over. It had stopped engaging its weapons a while ago and didn’t look like it was going to get back up anytime soon. Her adrenaline fading, Weiss too dropped to the ground and onto her knees. Lungs burning, using Gambol as a half-crutch to keep her propped up, she struggled to take in air.

“Yes!” Ruby cheered as she came out of a super-speed blur. “We totally—Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Just as quickly, Ruby’s triumphant tone melted into one of concern. Ruby folded up Crescent Rose, came over to Weiss, knelt beside her.

“Forgot how much... that takes... out of me,” Weiss wheezed. During the last half of the battle, she had pushed herself, called forth a few time dilation glyphs probably when they weren’t strictly necessary, and now she was paying the price. She tried to wave Ruby off. “I’m fine… Don’t worry… Just out of practice...”

Weiss’s Aura broke apart then, bits of blue light dissipating into the air. Maybe it was a miracle that it had held on for so long in the first place. “I didn’t know you had become so good with your Semblance,” Ilia said, in a world weary tone as she clipped Lightning Lash to her belt and came over as well. “Actually, you know what, I’m absolutely sure you were never even close to that good.”

Ruby scowled up at Ilia. Weiss could feel the tips of Ruby’s fingers curl slightly where they were pressed against her back. “Why are you trying to pick a fight?” Ruby said. “We just beat the giant robot!”

“I’m not trying to pick a fight. Just stating the facts as I know them,” Ilia said. She sighed, then sat down besides Weiss and Ruby, too, legs crossed. “We lived.”

“...We lived,” Weiss nodded.

It wasn’t long after that Ozpin found the three of them. Ozpin paused as he surveyed the downed Paladin on the street and then Gambol Shroud, sheathed at Weiss’s side. His spectacles were slightly askew, and he was covered in dust, but beyond that, the Headmaster hardly looked like he had just come out of deadly combat. 

“I suppose I should mention that you never answered my offer back in the courtroom,” Ozpin said, neutrally. 

“Forgive me for having been too busy being shot,” Weiss responded, too tired to attempt to be respectful. “But for what it’s worth, my answer is yes. I will talk.”

“Very good, then,” Ozpin said. “Would it be wrong for me to suspect it may be a bit of a long story?"

“No, you wouldn't be wrong,” Weiss said. "Even I don't understand it."

It had been a long day. A long month. The weight and tension that had compounded over her shoulders since she had woken up in this world, in this body, had been drawing ever more slowly and closer to crushing her. Weiss wondered what the other Weiss was getting up to. She wondered what the other Weiss would tell her to do in this situation. Then, she reminded herself that this was just as much her life now as anyone else’s, and listening to the other Weiss hadn’t ever really done her any favors.

Weiss had made promises to people. She had determined to live this life the best way she could. Her way.

Time to take that leap of faith.

++

A pleasant, sunny morning in Vale, accompanied by the looming shadow of that everpresent dragon frozen to the top of Beacon tower. Weiss Schnee and Neopolitan, current roommates not entirely sure of how they had ended up in their present predicaments, eyed each other over the surface of the wooden kitchen table warily. Actually, the both of them knew exactly how they had ended up in their present predicaments. The crux of the problem was how to extricate themselves from it.

 _These pancakes,_ Neopolitan wrote, _are shit._

“For a relatively new cook, I think I’ve actually done a pretty good job,” Weiss said.

 _It’s literally a mix from a box. All you had to do was follow the instructions,_ Neopolitan said. _How could you possibly fuck it up this badly?_

“I didn’t fuck anything up,” Weiss disagreed. “You’re the one who’s being picky.”

_Then why aren’t I seeing you eat any of it? Yeah. You eat it._

Weiss slowly broke eye contact with Neopolitan to look at the subject of the conversation. Sure, maybe they were a little on the burnt and misshapen side, but no one’s children came out perfect on the first try. Compared to the stuff that Penny had sometimes made back in Atlas, this was positively a gourmet meal. Weiss brought her eyes up and once more met Neopolitan’s unimpressed expression. Then she looked down at the pancakes again.

 _Go on,_ Neopolitan goaded. _Eat it._

“...I already ate earlier,” Weiss responded, clearing her throat lightly.

 _Guess what,_ Neopolitan said. _It turns out, me too._

Someone’s stomach growled. They both ignored the sound. “What a perfect coincidence,” Weiss said, and picked up the plate. She went to the garbage and dumped the contents of the plate inside. She put the plate in the sink and continued, “So.”

 _Oh fuck you, I’m not doing the dishes,_ Neopolitan’s chair scraped the linoleum as she twisted around to glare at Weiss, holding up her talking notebook. It was a little interesting to see the way Neopolitan’s handwriting changed moment by moment. Sometimes she favored using the Scroll, sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes she wrote in flowery, girly cursive, sometimes in aggressive death metal. Each time, whatever it was, Weiss could count on the tone and content of the messages to be approximately the same. It was rarer for Neopolitan to write a sentence where she wasn’t cursing at Weiss than wasn’t.

Currently, Neopolitan’s font of choice was a smooth, disgusting comic sans. It was loathsome to look at and Weiss was faintly impressed the criminal had managed to emulate the off-puttingness of it so well. “I was actually going to talk about, you know, our little impasse,” Weiss said. “But now that you’ve brought it up, I think you’re absolutely right. I think you really ought to do the dishes.”

 _Roman always did the dishes._ Neopolitan wrote, frowning, and Weiss picked up on how the edge of her ‘R’ went sliding too far down on the left end of the page. Too bad Roman’s dead, even Weiss had the presence of mind not to say. Continuing her train of thought, Neopolitan added, _Look, don’t be an idiot, I need to have both of my hands available in order to write, so if we’re going to talk, you’re going to have to be the one to bite the bullet._

“We can talk after you’ve done them,” Weiss said. “There’s no rush. I’m patient.”

Neapolitan wrote, _You’re closer to the sink._

Weiss weighed her options. On the one hand, she didn’t want to do the dishes. On the other hand, that last point Neopolitan had made was especially salient when she was, after all, closer to the sink. Also, if Weiss had to read another word in that accursed font, her head was going to explode. Conceding the point, Weiss turned around and turned on the faucet.

The plates were fairly reflective, once Weiss soaped them up and started rinsing them off. They were so reflective, in fact, that Weiss soon saw the face of none other than her long lost oh so dearly missed other self staring at her up from the ceramic. The other Weiss looked exhausted, covered in grime and filth, white hair in disarray. Clearly, she had seen better days.

There was a second of silence, the both of them mutually surprised. Then, the other Weiss started speaking, very rapidly, voice tight with anger, “You have a lot of explaining you need to do, Weiss Schnee, do you have any idea—“

It was the first time that the other Weiss had used her name, or rather, their name. About two weeks now Weiss had been steadfastly ignoring her, keeping out of view of mirrors, sneaking sleeping pills from the medicine cabinet to try and fog up the dreams. Weiss dropped the plate into the sink. She turned off the faucet, wiped her hands on the towel, and faced Neopolitan.

 _You really are goddamn useless,_ Neopolitan stood up. _I’ll teach you how to wash the fucking dishes, in the name of the poor fucking Brothers._

At the sink, Weiss let Neopolitan hip check her out of her way. The mute woman made exaggerated motions out of grabbing the dish soap, squirting it onto the sponge, and scrubbing the plate. Her expression screamed ‘even a toddler can do this!’

The other Weiss reappeared, image broken up by the running water, “Is that Roman Torchwick’s henchman the criminal what are you doing with her DO NOT RUN AWAY AGAIN—“

Weiss ran away. More specifically, she walked very leisurely back to the kitchen table and sat down in her chair, greatly appreciating the blessed silence brought on by the absence of the other Weiss Schnee’s voice. All was well again. She could continue living in her normal, utterly boring peace.

It hadn’t really been a conscious action at first, avoiding the other Weiss. Weiss just hadn’t remembered to talk to her, hadn’t put any thought into it. But after a while it had become a conscious choice. She had simply discovered how much easier it was not having to constantly field stupid questions, always having to see her reflection, taking her in and judging her.

Neopolitan put the plates in the drying rack and went to the table, too.

“Okay, our impasse,” Weiss said. She furrowed her eyebrows. Her thoughts felt scrambled, which was unusual for her—probably the comic sans affecting her more deeply than she realized—and she tried to get them in order by saying what she knew out loud. “Under threat of death, you want me to help you ambush Ruby Rose and company. You’ve realized I don’t especially care about her and you think that having me as your partner in crime would be great for playing psychological mind tricks. However, I would rather actually die than approach Ruby Rose and company. You would kill me for not helping you, but you have no idea where I’ve hidden your weapon, and for many boring reasons we’re not going to get into, you’re rather sentimentally attached to it.”

Instead of directly responding to her summary of the events, Neopolitan reached for something under the table. She put the nondescript object in front of Weiss. A second later, the object transformed with a shift of her Semblance.

“...Myrtenaster,” Weiss said, surprised. “When did you get this again?”

 _Someone tried to sell it to me,_ Neopolitan wrote, her expression flat. _Apparently, though, you sold it first._

“I needed the money,” Weiss shrugged. “It was a business transaction.”

Weiss could tell what was bothering Neopolitan. It wasn’t just Neopolitan but people in Remnant in general who tended to be, well, overly attached to their weapons. They considered their weapons to be extensions of themselves, their souls. It was not unheard of for Huntresses and Huntsmen to go through periods of mourning when their weapons were destroyed.

Neopolitan picked up Myrtenaster, seemingly uncomfortable with holding it. It was true it was a bit of a faux pas to handle someone else’s weapon without their permission, but Weiss found it more amusing than anything else that Neopolitan was so hesitant about this she had no qualms getting violent and disrespecting all other boundaries. With her free hand, Neopolitan wrote, _You get this back, I get Hush, we both stay here as long as we want_ _to figure out our plans about Little Red._

“Bad deal,” Weiss said.

_I promise I won’t kill you. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. All that._

“Still no.”

Neopolitan said, _Is there a reason you don’t want your favorite little toothpick back?_

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

 _Okay. I’ll tell you. I’ve been wondering about why you bleed and bruise so easily,_ Neopolitan said. Lightning fast she lunged across the table, the butterknife Weiss hadn’t seen her caressing burying into the wood and quivering, close enough to leave a thin gash down the side of Weiss’s hand. _And why your reflexes are so dull. You’re a fake, aren’t you? You used daddy’s money and influence to bribe your way into Beacon when the truth is you really can’t fight worth a damn. That’s why you don’t give a shit about anything, because to you, everything is all part of some giant game. Even now you’re just waiting here, doing nothing, because you know you’ll get bailed out sooner or later by daddy. You’re pathetic._

Well, so obviously Neopolitan hadn’t actually been uncomfortable with handling Myrtenaster and had instead been preparing for this moment. Weiss’s amusement vanished like smoke. Normally so cold, so calm, but besides silver eyes and Ruby Rose, it was her father, too, that could get a real rise out of her. Weiss said, “I’m willing to accept everything that you said, except the part about my father, because nothing about who I am has anything to do with my father.”

Neopolitan tossed Myrtenaster at Weiss. _Fight me, then,_ Neopolitan said, and _prove me wrong. Or can I beat you even without my weapon, with my hands tied behind my back?_

Weiss picked up Myrtenaster. She squeezed the hilt. For a moment, she was sorely tempted to take Neopolitan up on her offer. Then she relaxed her death grip, relaxed her shoulders, and allowed the cold place to put a check on her feelings. “I can’t fight,” she said.

_Why?_

“Because,” Weiss said. “I just can’t.”

Neopolitan sneered. _You’ve been wrong this whole time, you know,_ Neopolitan wrote. _You’ve been wrong. I lied to you. I already got my revenge._ She spread her hands and then over the kitchen table she suddenly transformed into Ruby Rose, red cloak and silver eyes, the one person Weiss could do without ever seeing in her life again, except this Ruby was covered in blood, positively dripping in blood, a hole punctured through her chest, expression blank. _I’ve already killed your partner, Little Red._

Weiss blinked.

Oh, the other Weiss was going to be very upset when she found out. If she found out.

She blinked again. Ruby was dead?

_Good. Good, good—_

_She can’t be dead. That’s impossible, think about everything else leading up to this moment. Neopolitan’s just messing with you._

“You’re an asshole, too, you know?” Weiss said.

The dead Ruby Rose took a step towards her. The blood dripping off of her body and from the hole in her chest really was realistic. The dead Ruby Rose took a step towards her. It had been so long, it had not been long enough, dream words echoing in Weiss’s head, those silver eyes, digging deep into her.

_“You remind me a bit of my son. Will you cry like he did?”_

_“Will you cry?”_

_“Will you cry?”_

_“Cry.”_

Weiss stood up. The cold place rattled inside her ribcage. She capitulated. “I’ll give you your weapon, fine. Deal. For fuck’s sake, please just stop that.”

But the dead Ruby Rose continued, even closer. Closer. Closer. Too close. Practically on top of her now, she was smirking, wrapping her arms around the back of Weiss’s neck, lips brushing the shell of Weiss’s ear. Silver eyes, Weiss thought, and it couldn’t have just been her imagination, the blood dripping down the side of her neck, warm, and _what the fuck was going on?_ Weiss grabbed the butter knife from the table and jammed it as hard as she could against Ruby’s cheek. 

The knife did little more than glance off of Neopolitan’s Aura but Ruby finally drew away, doing a casual flip back over to the other side of the table. The illusion disappeared and there was Neopolitan crossing her arms, an incredibly self-satisfied expression on her face.

“That wasn’t funny,” Weiss said, coldly furious. She slammed her fist into the table, relished in the burst of pain, but even that wasn’t enough to help her fully focus. “Even if Ruby goddamn fucking Rose was the person I fucking love, that wasn’t funny, that was fucking sick—“

 _Payback for earlier and all the ridiculous shit you pulled, it’s the least you deserve,_ Neopolitan’s expression continued to remain smug, or was it just Weiss’s imagination, and there was a slightest note of guilt, too? Neopolitan flipped her hair over her shoulder, grinned, and held up the notepad. The font had turned into the same kind that they usually printed on Valentine’s cards. _Anyways, you just Freudian slipped there, who’s the person you love?_

Weiss stared at those words. She froze, for a second. 

_What, somebody daddy doesn’t approve?_ Neopolitan laughed soundlessly. She seemed delighted to have found a chink in Weiss’s should have been impenetrable walls. Another page, more words. _A secret lover? A side whore? Who would’ve thought you had it in you?_

“...It’s nothing like that, you misunderstand,” Weiss muttered. She shook her head. “I’ll go get you your weapon. Wipe that expression off your face.”

Leaving Myrtenaster on the table, Weiss stood up and walked out of the room. Despite the resolve of her words, the tips of her fingers were trembling. What a spectacular loss of control that had been. Truly, she had underestimated Neopolitan’s cunning and guile. Up until now it had always been her getting under the skin of the criminal, frustrating and angering her, and she hadn't been ready for the tables to be turned. 

_The girl, the spots on her face flushed a pretty pink, one hand awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck, shifting nervously from foot to foot, unable to meet Weiss’s equally embarrassed and flushed face. “Uh, so, maybe this is going to sound really weird, but do you maybe, you know, uh, like me, like, uh…”_

_“Like you?” Weiss, her voice squeaking, her heart thumping a mile a minute in her chest. She put her hands behind her back to hide their trembling. “N-No! That’s preposterous! I mean, I do, of course, but like, as a friend, a friend—“_

“You still love her, apparently,” Weiss said, out loud to herself. She touched her chest, felt the even, steady rhythm of the thing there, completely undisturbed, and laughed at the irony of it. Only earlier, when Neopolitan had acted as Ruby Rose, had it even deviated from its rhythm. How awful. How delightfully numb. Somewhere else inside of her, Weiss had the feeling the cold place was probably laughing along with her. It knew she knew it was just wishful thinking.

Weiss had hidden Neopolitan’s parasol behind the mirror in the bathroom. At the time, she had been running on a limited time and it had seemed as brilliant an idea as any. Now, as she popped the glass out of its frame, she regretted it. A mirror meant, inevitably, that she had to see her reflection again.

“Can we please, please, just _talk_ ,” the other Weiss said. 

“I am two seconds away from dropping this on the floor,” Weiss said, carelessly. “I don’t want to talk to you about anyone or anything. Leave me alone, take your dreams and memories and get out of my head. Thanks.”

“It’s not just about me anymore,” the other Weiss said. “Ilia wants to talk to you, too. General Ironwood. The Headmaster. Gods, you can’t just keep ignoring your _—_ your _responsibilities_. The _consequences_ of your actions. The SDC, Cinder Fall, Salem _—_ just what the fuck exactly were the things you were getting up to? What could have possibly been going on through your mind?”

Weiss paused. She took out the parasol, put the glass back into its frame. Looked at the other Weiss again. The other Weiss’s expression was less angry and tired now than a strange mix of both desperate and disbelieving. _Just what the fuck exactly were the things you were getting up to?_

What had she been saying again? Before that?

Something about Ilia, wanting to talk to her. 

Which meant that...

Couldn’t keep her mouth shut after all, the bitch. Oh, well, it wasn’t like the other Weiss’s situation really affected her. Let the other Weiss do whatever she wanted, it didn’t matter. Ilia, like she had been reminding herself over and over again, didn't matter. 

Weiss took the mirror out of the frame again. “I’ll ignore you as long as I want,” she said. Thoughtfully, she added, “Forever, if I have to.”

She dropped the mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter you got to bear witness to my worst writing weakness, fights :,) I had to cut out a couple of chunks that I wasn’t satisfied with but couldn’t figure out what to replace them with, so that’s why things might feel a little choppy pacing-wise. Overall quality of writing has been suffering a little bit, but I've been trying to hold myself accountable to weekly updates. I'd most like to work on transitioning away from characters talking lots to characters talking lots while doing plot-relevant stuff. It feels like Neo and other Weiss have been stuck inside the apartment for years like this is Volume 5 again lmao
> 
> List of things that I need to get to at some point but keep procrastinating:
> 
> RJNR scene, probably Ruby
> 
> Blake and/or Yang scene, both worlds
> 
> Cinder scene
> 
> Penny scene
> 
> Maybe I should compress everything above into one chapter... Hm... In any situation, I hope you guys all had a nice holiday! Thanks for reading, as always!


	14. Chapter 14

The girl who had pretended to be Weiss was explaining everything to the Headmaster from start to finish. She spoke in the even, hesitant tones that Ilia had grown used to in these past few weeks, alternating between firm and cautious, warm and cold, always genuine. Ilia was the only one not part of Ozpin’s group there, the lone outsider that the girl had insisted be allowed to listen in on, but Ilia gave up on her privilege halfway, stood up and left the office, unable to make herself stay even a second longer. All those things she had told her, the feelings she had revealed, the hope, only slightly blossomed, crushed and ruined like a delicate flower.

Weiss hadn’t been slowly changing back to the way she used to be. The person who had greeted Ilia back then with the cold unfeeling eyes, the vial of poison in her hands, had really been the real Weiss. And as far as anyone could tell, the real Weiss had actually done those awful things. There were no miraculous justifications.

“She makes me so angry, but she secretly frightens me, too,” the girl who had pretended to be Weiss had said. “The way she talks about things and people sometimes, like everything has no value to her. You... You have to see it to know what I mean. Her eyes.”

Right. Well, Ilia had certainly known what the girl meant. So, it hadn’t just been Ilia’s imagination, then, tricks of the light.

Right. So, the real Weiss was probably gone forever, utterly ducked out of all her accountabilities and relationships and life, and a complete scumbag of a human, to boot.

Fucking hell.

Fucking hell, it was all so fucked up, Ilia couldn’t believe it, she had always pretended to be stoic and unaffected and strong, but on the inside, she was forever on the verge of screaming or crying or both, a scared little girl that didn’t know how to do anything, going in circles wanting someone to guide her, to tell her she was on the right path. _Weiss Weiss Weiss_ , she thought, was always thinking, oh my god, how did things turn out like this, what wrong turn did we take to get here, I loved you so much, you know that, I loved you so much, I loved you, I—

_How can I still even lie to myself that there has to be some perfect, magical explanation for everything? How can I keep holding on? I hate how at the end of the day what I can’t stand isn’t even the idea that you’ve become an awful, horrible person, but that you won’t tell me why._

What Ilia really would have said, if she had possessed even a single ounce of courage:

_How can I still love you?_

And

_I hate how at the end of the day what I can’t stand isn’t even the idea that you’ve become an awful, horrible person, but that you won’t tell me why, because then that means you really don’t love me anymore._

This was a big school with a sprawling campus, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find a private place to begin the long process of sorting out her thoughts (not that there seemed to ever be an end to that process). Even in her affected state, Ilia didn’t fail to notice the shadow that was not so discreetly tailing her. Either the shadow had grown complacent during her time at Beacon or she had wanted Ilia to notice her. Well, it was all the same to Ilia, either way.

Ilia ducked into a garden, replete with red roses and blossoming flowers. Ilia took a breath of that sweet, slightly sickly scent, calming herself, and called out, “Belladonna.”

Promptly, Blake materialized. Ilia’s former White Fang comrade looked good as she stepped into the light cutting diagonally across the hedges of flowers. She was well-rested, shoulders held up with a self-assurance she hadn’t had before, amber eyes glinting with a steely edge. Ilia noticed the bow.

“I thought that was you I saw back at the fairgrounds,” Ilia tested the waters.

“You’re working for Weiss Schnee,” Blake said, ever direct and to the point.

After the attack at the courthouse, the three of them—her, Red, and the girl who had pretended to be Weiss—had taken an airship to Beacon with the Headmaster and General. The general thought was that it would be safer at the school. Although the attack at the courthouse so far seemed an isolated incident, no one could be sure the ‘enemy’ hadn’t cooked up something else, and it was better safe than sorry. The whole ride there, Ilia hadn’t failed to notice how the girl who had pretended to be Weiss was practically wired stiff with nervous energy. If Ilia had been a braver person, she would’ve tried to reach out and take her hands.

Blake was waiting for an answer. _She’s not really Weiss,_ Ilia was tempted to say. _I think I must have known much earlier, when there were so many obvious signs. Maybe it’s for the best that I’m not a braver person._

Instead, Ilia said, “Yeah.”

Blake hissed. She was displeased. “How could you?”

“How could I what?” Ilia played dumb.

“You know the things she and the SDC have done to the Faunus!” Blake said. “They’re everything against what the White Fang stood and fought for!”

“If you’re here now at Beacon, you must have left the White Fang, too,” Ilia said. Blake flinched, and Ilia said, “So you finally listened to me. I told you. I was right.”

“I—I left because—” Blake recovered quickly. “It’s different. You didn’t just leave, Ilia. You left and went straight to the other side, to work for a _monster_.”

 _Monster._ The defensiveness was hot and instinctive and Ilia, despite whatever attempts to be stoic, had always been hot-headed. “She’s not a monster,” Ilia snapped.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Blake said. “Do I need to make a _list,_ of all the things she’s done, the Mantle mining incident, to start, or how about earlier, what happened with your parents—”

“That wasn’t her!” Ilia exploded. “That was the SDC, you’re conflating things, it’s not—

“She’s the head of the SDC, you’re on the SDC’s fucking _payroll,_ I would know I fucking checked!” Blake shouted. “If she doesn’t control the SDC‘s actions, then who does? Are you even listening to what you’re saying right now?"

“One and a half years ago,” Ilia said, gritting her teeth, thinking that Blake was the one who wasn’t listening, “she hadn’t done anything with the SDC then, she was only the heiress, and you didn’t—none of you—cared, you could only see her for her name, who you thought she was—and you were just going to—to—You think I was going to fucking go along with that, that I was going to let you—”

“That was you?” Blake said, disbelieving. “You were the reason we failed that mission? The soldiers?”

“I wasn’t going to let you kill her!”

“We weren’t going to _kill_ her!”

“Yes, you were, and if you couldn’t see that that was what Adam was planning, then you really must have been blind!” Ilia shouted. “And then when the moment would finally come up, oh no Adam, are you going to cause another completely avoidable accident again, oh no Adam, what’s happening with you, I know you, Blake fucking Belladonna, _I know you_ , you would’ve just stood by and let him do it!”

Ilia had been almost fifteen when her parents had been killed and she couldn’t bear it any longer and had left Atlas, that rotten, horrible city. She had wandered Mistral for a month before she had gone south, following the rumors of revolution. There was camaraderie to be found in the White Fang of Menagerie, and the group had taken her in, welcomed her, but it wasn’t long before Ilia had grown restless and dissatisfied with how little concrete steps were actually being taken. There were others who had felt the same way as her. One of them was none other than Blake Belladonna, the daughter of the chieftain of the island, and the two of them had quickly grown close. What could Ilia say. Perhaps she was naturally drawn to the wealthy, privileged types.

Blake and Ilia had followed Adam Taurus to the northwest, away from Menagerie and to the Sanus continent. Under Adam’s guidance, they had done a lot of… questionable things. To be frank, Ilia hadn’t really cared at the time. It had felt good to get revenge. And that had been what she had been doing, really, getting revenge, under the guise of the greater good, the banner cry of ‘for the Faunus’. She hadn’t been able to hurt the SDC, hadn’t been able to hurt Atlas, not when they were too large and corrupt and powerful, so she had settled for the next best thing: hurting everyone else.

 _But what if we can,_ Adam had said. _Hurt them._ And he had explained his plan. An academic conference in Atlas, the world’s most well-educated and top scientists in attendance, relaxed border control and security, university students, a rumor of the heiress to the SDC herself in attendance, then mostly known for her brilliant mind and song talents outside of her association with the company— 

_The heiress to the SDC,_ Ilia had thought with a jolt. _The heiress? Wait a moment, he’s talking about Weiss!_ As for Ilia and Weiss, the two of them as a pair, it had been a over year since they had seen each other, and while Blake maybe had been able to delude herself about what they had been doing with the White Fang, Ilia knew deep down the truth, and what Adam would do to the girl Ilia still, even after all that time, unable to make herself forget, loved. An anonymous tip to the Atlesian army, a ticket purchased separately, was all it had taken to cut her ties to the White Fang. It had been surprisingly easy to do. Ilia had been and still was a Mantle citizen, and she had been, in a fashion, only returning home. 

And then Weiss.

_“Oh, it’s you,” Weiss said. She was older and taller than Ilia remembered, but not by much, and still just as frighteningly thin. She had been standing by the window of her office overlooking the city, conversing with a slim mustached man in a gray overcoat, when by chance, her eyes had drifted to the side and caught sight of Ilia hovering uncertainly at the doorway. Now she was staring directly at Ilia, a look of faint surprise in her eyes, quickly swallowed by an ineffable something, smoothed over, all coolness and strangeness and business-like._

_“I, um…” Ilia began. Everything she had prepared to say dried up in her throat. I’m sorry, I meant to call, but you didn’t try to call me either? How have you been? Ilia shifted on her feet, well aware of what she looked like in her casual clothing, fresh off an airship not more than six hours prior, and on the other hand Weiss dressed cleanly, primly, with the expensive taste of a rich family, and more beautiful than ever, too. “...Sorry. Is this a bad time?”_

_“In a sense,” Weiss remarked, all too casually. Something about her tone of voice was just as strange as her expression in the way she studied Ilia—a flatness, coolness. Back to the man in the gray overcoat, Weiss looked away from Ilia to offer a smile, then delicately, her hand. “Doctor. I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this one short. I’ll be in touch.”_

_“Good luck working with that woman, you have my sincere condolences,” the man smirked out his response. He reached for Weiss’s hand and simply grasped it for a moment, his fingers overlapping hers. “Our good friend Tyrian sends his regards.”_

_The man brushed past Ilia on his way out, not so much as glancing at her. Weiss seemed to have found some sort of great amusement in the man’s parting words, because she was smiling to herself as she went to her desk. A drawer opened, then closed. Suddenly Weiss looked up and paused, as if just now seeing Ilia again, and gestured at the seat in front of her desk._

_Ilia sat._

_“So, uh,” Ilia said. She took in the office slowly, but Weiss even more slowly. “You’re working for the company, now, huh…?”_

_“We always knew that was going to happen eventually,” Weiss said, shrugging, and that sentence more than anything told Ilia Weiss had changed. “But let’s see. What are the things you’ve been up to?”_

(Of the most unbelievable things that had been released in the files online, Ilia thought, they had to have been the clips of Weiss and Adam, the way Weiss had spoken to him, and he her. Those files above all else unnerved Ilia, made her frightened of that mysterious Cinder Fall, because if there was a person out there who could somehow reign in Adam Taurus’s murderuous, single-minded rage, who could point and redirect the White Fang’s resentment—

It was unbelievable, too, to think of what had led to Blake and Ilia crossing paths again like this. Once Blake and her had been good friends, once Ilia could have almost started to believe she was moving on from Weiss and starting to feel something more than just friendship for the other girl. Now, there was nothing between them but animosity.) 

“Just give me my weapon back,” Blake snarled. “I don’t even—I don’t fucking care how you managed to get it.”

“Take it,” Ilia reached behind her back and threw Gambol Shroud at Blake as hard as she could. She could feel the scarlet of her face, a burning color that refused to fade. “I hope all the blood staining your sword makes you sleep better at night.”

“You’re a hypocrite,” Blake glowered.

“At least I know that I am,” Ilia sneered.

++

Without a word, Ilia stood up and left the office. Weiss immediately noticed and faltered mid-sentence in her story.

“Go on,” Ozpin encouraged.

“Yes, well...” Weiss said. She had about finished recounting the events that had happened since she had arrived in this world in the other Weiss’s body. So it was probably time to go even more backwards and explain the Vytal Festival, the Fall of Beacon, the events leading up to her body swap, when she had been evading the subject quite deliberately and for too long now. Ilia leaving didn’t help her nerves. Weiss cleared her throat, finding herself unable to continue. “Sorry. Can I get something to drink before I continue?”

General Ironwood stood up immediately. “I’ll go get it,” he said, authoritatively, and disappeared into the elevator. 

There was a moment of silence. Ozpin turned in his chair to look out the window, seeming deep in thought, fingers steepled and staring into the distance.

Professor Goodwitch pushed up her glasses.

“If I have to be the first to say it, so be it,” Goodwitch said. “You have to understand, this all sounds a bit far fetched. Body swapping? Alternate worlds?”

“I do understand, Professor,” Weiss said. “I had a difficult time wrapping my head around it at first as well. But if you need additional verification, I could ask Robyn Hill to—”

“I think it’s important that this information be kept to as few ears as possible,” Ozpin interrupted, still looking out the window into the distance. “I believe your story, Miss Schnee, wholeheartedly. I must apologize for the way I behaved to you before, when I didn’t know any better. You’ve been put in a very very difficult position. But I think you have made the correct decision so far, being careful who you trust.”

On the surface it was about as good as Weiss could’ve hoped for, this outcome, but still, Weiss didn’t relax. “Since I’ve trusted you, now,” Weiss said, “can you tell me if it was the correct decision?”

Ozpin smiled. It failed to reassure Weiss. “Yes. Of course.” 

“Trust is a two-way street,” Weiss said.

Off to the side, Qrow snorted.

“If I may offer my most _humble_ opinion,” he said. “You’re either fucking nuts, Ice Queen, or you’re playing a long con—”

“A long—Cinder Fall tried to kill me!” Weiss said, disbelievingly. 

“But you aren’t killed, are you?” Qrow pointed out.

“Yes, because I was trying not to _die_ —”

“Are you a double agent?”

“I think this would have to be the world’s stupidest attempt at trying to become a double agent!”

“People who think they’re smart often do stupid things.”

“I’m practically a _genius,_ if I was trying to trick you lot into giving me, I don’t know, information, there are far easier—”

Weiss exhaled, cutting herself off. _I’m practically a genius._ That had been an awfully, uncharacteristically egotistical thing for her to say. Where had the words even come from? It had been a long and stressful day, but this wasn’t a good time for her to get combative. Weiss massaged her forehead.

“The both of you,” Goodwitch frowned. “Please control yourselves.”

Qrow gave a derisive snort. “Whatever,” he said. There was another moment of silence, this one much longer. “I'm going to check on Jimmy. Make sure he doesn't get his hand jammed in the vending machine or something.” 

“Miss Schnee,” Ozpin said once Qrow had left, too. “I’ve been wondering. Would it be possible for us to talk to your other self directly?”

“Er,” Weiss said, slightly relieved at the change in subject. “No, I don’t believe so. Only I can communicate with her. And only when there’s a reflective surface, and I can see my reflection of, well, her.”

“Could you try to talk to her now?” Ozpin gestured at the window.

“She’s been deliberately ignoring me,” Weiss said. She said, “There’s been so much to deal with here, I’ve been trying not to think about her as another problem. At this point, I don’t even know if it’s possible for us to switch back. I’m worried there isn’t a way.” ‘Depressed and scared’ was probably more like it.

“I’m sure there has to be a way for you to switch back,” Ozpin said. “Not that I know of it, unfortunately. But if it could happen to you in the first place, then the logic follows there has to be a way for it to happen again. The question is ‘how’.”

“You said we could help one another,” Weiss brought up.

“Right,” Ozpin agreed. “Of course I will try my best to help you with it—considering that you were my student in another world, the burden of ‘help’ ought to fall more on me than you. What I am ruminating over are the other things I want to tell you. If, I think, I should add more to your troubles.”

“This whole deal with the maidens and Salem,” Weiss hazarded, and was rewarded with a nod. “The other me seemed to imply it was… important. I did try to look into them, briefly, but I couldn’t find anything. Just myths and fairy tales.”

Ozpin looked at her. It gave Weiss a bad feeling, that look. She thought of another thing supposedly related to myths and fairy tales, silver-eyed warriors, and Ruby.

“Suppose I told you it was all real,” Ozpin said.

“...What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you finish your story first when the General and Qrow comes back,” Ozpin said. “I have a suspicion that everything might be connected together.”

++

Blake’s day, which had started off pretty alright, had gotten steadily worse as the hours progressed. She had an inkling things had been about to take their turn for the worse when the livestream broadcast of Weiss Schnee’s trial abruptly cut off and was not much later replaced by alarming news reports of some kind of terrorist attack. Then she and Yang had realized that Ruby was nowhere to be found, that she wasn’t answering her Scroll, and that Crescent Rose’s weapons locker was also missing as well as Gambol Shroud’s worrisomely enough. Given Ruby’s track record for finding trouble, plus that last vague text from Ruby saying she was spending the day in the city, they’d put two and two together easily.

Before they could do anything, however, Professor Goodwitch had announced a schoolwide lockdown. No students in or out of the campus, mandatory attendance at the auditorium. Of course Yang and Blake weren’t going to sit back and do nothing, not when Ruby was out there doing god knows what and in potential danger, but Yang’s uncle of all people had appeared out of nowhere and stopped them from leaving.

“Ozpin and the General’s got a good handle on the situation in Vale last I’m aware of it,” Qrow said, tersely. “I hate to say it, but listen to Goodwitch. Go to the auditorium.”

“What?” Yang had said, outraged. “You can’t be serious! What are you even doing here, Uncle Qrow?”

“Yes, why are you here?” Blake asked, narrowing her eyes. The veteran Huntsman looked like he was in a hurry, and his hand kept twitching for the sword on his back.

“Potential intruders and security breach, that’s all I can say,” Qrow said. “Ugh, come on!”

“They haven’t even issued a Grimm alarm,” Blake had argued the entire way to the auditorium, Qrow ushering them on like a disgruntled babysitter. And then the strangest sight, as if Blake’s eyes were playing tricks on her. “Intruders like her?” Blake pointed upwards at the ginger-haired girl literally _flying_ through the sky toward Beacon Tower like no one’s business.

“What the fuck…?” Yang had said, squinting.

Qrow swore under his breath. “Just go inside!”

They had spent a few tension filled hours milling about, doing nothing in particular, Goodwitch’s all too keen eye seeming to laser right in on the two of them. Conversations with JNPR and the other students revealed that no one else knew what was going on either. Most people preoccupied themselves with watching the news coming in from the city and theorizing about what must have happened. Preliminary reports were not awfully forthcoming.

“Oh my gosh! That’s Ruby!” Jaune eventually exclaimed. 

And so it was indeed Ruby, Blake and Yang’s absent teammate, pulling off hugely dangerous-looking maneuvers against a giant machine stomping around the open street, the footage shaky, indicating it was taken by some random bystander on their Scroll, but two other figures fighting alongside Ruby too which Blake recognized all too well: the first one a face ripped straight from Blake’s past, the other Weiss fucking Schnee handling Blake’s missing weapon. 

_“I hope all the blood staining your sword makes you sleep better at night.”_

Watching Ilia abruptly about-face and walk away, vanishing from the garden, Blake, who had never liked open confrontation, though sometimes violence, ran her fingers alongside Gambol’s hilt, the blade, the ribbon, and felt herself shudder in revulsion. Her whole body trembled with barely suppressed unsuppressed emotion. Yeah. She was never letting her weapon out of sight again.

Weiss Schnee. Probably the most publicly hated person on Remnant. Wasn’t supposed to have a Semblance, Blake knew, but somehow did anyways, somehow finagled herself Blake’s weapon and used it to tell the truth none too badly.

Those blue, serious eyes, wide with a soft sort of astonishment and hurt at the Vytal Festival fairgrounds, staring at Blake, as if asking her why she was doing this to her.

The strange magnetism, draw Ruby had to her despite Blake and Yang’s best attempts to dissuade her, and Ozpin, too, inviting her to that rapidly becoming infamous host to conspiracy theories trial.

Ilia who of all people even more so than Blake should have hated Weiss Schnee. Should have hated her, honestly, just as much as Adam, and yet even Adam hadn’t…

…

Blake sighed. 

That part of her past she hadn’t told anyone yet. She was confident Ilia wasn’t about to go around spilling the bag to anyone—Ilia was a more deep-rooted passively bitter kind of person than someone focused on petty revenge and who would she tell, anyways—but more and more everyday the secret was starting to wear down on Blake.

She had come clean about being a Faunus to Ruby and Yang pretty early on. That hadn’t been difficult at all. But saying she used to be White Fang, those words she had somehow been unable to spit out no matter how hard she tried, even when they had been directing fighting against them, when there was no direct impetus to force her to. Now that the team was closer, too, it was more difficult. Who liked to bear the judgment of the people they cared about and loved? It was far away in the past, and the past, Ilia’s sudden reappearance notwithstanding, was just there, not coming any closer.

Maybe Blake understood she was just making excuses for herself. Avoiding, running away from the past, just because it was painful. Picking and choosing what she wanted to remember. More than just protecting herself, it was also in its own twisted way about protecting Ruby and Yang, too, shielding them from the knowledge that the world and the people they believed so much good in could really be so horrible and be connected to many horrible things. Well, that was one of the ways Blake rationalized it. There were a lot of other ways she rationalized it, too.

(Eyes opening again in cold sweat, the outline of her curled position pressed into the mattress, stumbling into the mirrorless bathroom to splash cold water onto her face with trembling fingers, _she was fine, just stupid dreams,_ Neopolitan’s disapproving look and mismatched eyes under the thin slash of moonlight in the hallway arms crossed as if asking _when are you going to really wake up_ —)

Anyways, she was supposed to be angry. Blake sighed, again. She hoped Ruby and Yang weren’t still arguing in the dorm room. She had been right in there, too, in the thick of the arguing, things getting progressively heated in a way they had never gotten before, when an offhanded comment about where Gambol Shroud had gone had provided her the motive to extricate herself. Now Blake’s anger having been redirected, maybe they could all bee calm, and just figure the fuck out of what was going on, together, ignoring the fact that Weiss fucking Schnee was right up there in Beacon Tower talking to Ozpin about who knows what right now and was in all-likelihood on her way to getting acquitted of all her crimes.

Blake walked around campus aimlessly for a bit, trying to clear her mind, then rounded the corner and promptly bumped into Ilia, who (hadn’t she gone the other way?) slapped a hand to Blake’s mouth and hissed at her to shut the fuck up and be quiet. 

They were pressed up behind a wall, so Blake couldn’t even see what they were supposed to be hiding from. Then General Ironwood’s voice, faint. “I understand your desire, Penny. You’re a good person and honest to a fault. But even if Ozpin for whatever reason decides to let Miss Schnee in on the loop, your position within the SDC as her bodyguard is still more than valuable. The information you’re privy to—”

An unfamiliar girl’s voice: “But it shouldn’t matter anymore, should it? If we’re both on the same side and have been on the same side for this entire time. I want to let her know. I feel like I’m lying to her and I don’t like it.”

Ironwood’s sigh. “Penny. You’re not friends with her. You’re just there to do a job, like a soldier. Remember that.”

“You don’t know the way she looks sometimes. I’m not sure anyone else can see it, even if they’re looking right at her eyes. It might be because of the way I’m built that I can. The feeling like you’re hollow inside, like you’re not a _real person._ ”

A long moment of silence. “Perhaps you’re right after all,” Ironwood said, eventually. “I’m not sure being around her has been good for you.”

“...I feel fine, sir.”

“Everything that’s happened must have been stressful. I’m glad you came out of it alright and nothing happened here. This whole mess with Cinder Fall is making the Atlesian military look like a laughingstock. You know, Winter has been asking after you. She just arrived in Vale the other day.”

“Special Operative Schnee doesn’t like me.”

Another moment of silence, which Blake was fairly sure was another moment of General Ironwood being rendered speechless and unsure of what to say. Blake had no idea what she and Ilia were eavesdropping on except that they were definitely not supposed to be eavesdropping and that it was raising plenty more questions than answers. For a brief moment, huddled with Ilia, it was almost like old times in the White Fang again, the both of them waiting with bated breath to hear more.

A third voice entered the fray.

“Hey, Jimmy! Will you hurry the f—oh. Hey, um, kid.”

“Mr. Branwen. Hello.”

“Look, did you get Oz’s text?”

“...Oh. I see,” Ironwood sounded vaguely surprised. “So he is telling her after all.”

“Yeah. You, Goodwitch, and I are all in definite consensus that this is not one of Oz's better ideas."

"General Ironwood, please." The girl's voice was a bit plaintive.

"I'm sorry, Penny, I think we should discuss this another time."

"What are you two discussing again?"

One of Blake’s ears flicked. Against her, she felt Ilia tense. Almost at that exact moment, like out of a bad sitcom or a tremendous stroke of bad luck, one of them slipped on a wet patch of mud or leaves, shifted a little bit too forward in anticipation, and with twin yelps they went tumbling out from behind the wall.

Some distance away, Qrow Branwen, General Ironwood, and that ginger-haired girl Blake had seen flying to Beacon Tower hours prior stared at the two of them toppled on the ground. The strangest thing about the scene, Blake thought, had to be the can of lemonade pop Ironwood was holding in his right hand, like out of some bizarre poorly thought out advertisement. 

Ilia picked herself up first with deliberate nonchalance. “Well, now that I’ve had the time to walk and think, I was going to re-enter the conversation, anyways,” Ilia said, loudly. “W—That girl—and I still have unfinished business. Lead the way back to the Headmaster’s office.”

“I’m with her,” Blake said, quickly, climbing to her feet and putting on a brazen air, too. Ilia shot her an accusing glance out of the corner of her eye and Blake added, “Uh. Otherwise, I’ll get...answers from Ruby later. So. What can you do about it?”

Qrow only groaned. “I need a damn drink,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update :( Just when I was talking about accountability two weeks ago sadly
> 
> I'm not sure if having Blake not tell Ruby and Yang about being a former White Fang member is out of character or not, but ehhhh it's slightly more interesting this way I think
> 
> How convenient that Ilia and Blake just so happened to overhear Ironwood and Penny talking... Now I'm wondering if Penny can canonically see through walls :0 If it's not clear where Penny disappeared to during/after the trial, she went straight to the vault in case someone showed up to try something funny
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

It snowed. Great, fat flakes.

Outside in the garden, Weiss could see the familiar, hunched over form of her mother drinking.

“Isn’t it cold?” Weiss asked.

“I’ll go get her,” Winter pursed her lips.

Her sister left. Weiss watched for a while from the window, her sister and her mother, talking. You didn’t have to be part of the family to notice the distance between them, the stiff way Winter held herself, Willow’s unfocused eyes.

( _At least she’s alive,_ Weiss thought.

She thought, _Huh? Why would I…)_

“Weiss,” Whitley’s small, needling voice. “I’m bored.”

“Go play with yourself,” she dismissed. “Or Klein.”

“I’m bored, Weiss.”

“I have to study.”

“But you’re not studying.” Down in the garden, Winter and Willow were still talking. Well, Winter was doing most of the talking, words coming out rapid and clipped and probably furious, barely restrained gestures. 

“Let’s play chess, Weiss,” Whitley said.

“I’m bad at chess,” she said, irritably. “You’re just going to beat me again.”

“Please?”

They played chess. Whitley was white, Weiss was black. The moves unfolded one after another. Clack clack clack. Pawn takes pawn, queen takes queen. Check. She was losing. 

(“How could you?” Whitley said, suddenly. He was older. Taller. His eyes were rimmed red, like he’d been crying.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Weiss said.)

Weiss stared at her little brother, bewildered. “Whitley?”

“It’s your move,” Whitley said, crossing his arms. “You’re in check.”

Move the king. Check. Move it again. She was on the backfoot. No space. All her pieces were cramped. Whitley’s look, way too triumphant and smug for a kid’s expression.

Down in the garden, trails of footsteps through the snow. Winter had helped their mother inside.

Weiss’s eyes drifted back over the board.

Then she saw it. A path to victory. She stared at the pieces, going over the calculations in her head, puzzled.

She looked up. Whitley had seen it, too. His look had turned slightly fearful. But it was her move. He couldn’t do anything about it even if he wanted to.

It was her move.

Her move...

(“Checkmate, Father,” Weiss smiled. The board overturned, pieces flying everywhere. Jacques Schnee slid down the chair, pulling at the front of his suit, lips turning blue as he futilely gasped for air. She was going to sit there, and watch him die. She was going to sit there and watch him die.)

Weiss bit her lip. Grasping the queen tightly in her hand, she played the wrong move. Whitley’s slightly fearful expression turned hopeful and greedy. A few minutes later, Weiss had no choice but to tip her king in surrender.

“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” she pretended to be mad.

“Let’s play again,” Whitley said, glowing.

Weiss said,

She—

Eyes opening again in cold sweat, the outline of her curled position pressed into the mattress, stumbling into the mirrorless bathroom to splash cold water onto her face with trembling fingers, _she was fine, just stupid dreams,_ Neopolitan’s disapproving look and mismatched eyes under the thin slash of moonlight in the hallway arms crossed as if asking _when are you going to really wake up_ —

The memories swam in her head, mixing together. Where one began and where one ended, she couldn’t tell. The funniest thing, Weiss thought, these memories, many of them not even of her own. Between every blink, images sticking to her brain.

She hoped that the other Weiss was being tormented, too.

The cold place murmured in her ears. She said to the cold place, “Yeah. I know.”

++

It was snowing outside the apartment. Weiss watched it snow and thought about how many days it had been since she had gone outside. She thought about just staying there, sitting in the chair, not doing anything, just watching it snow forever. It sounded like a peaceful life.

 _I’m leaving,_ Neopolitan wrote.

“Get some milk at the store, will you,” Weiss said.

 _No. You don’t understand. I’m_ leaving _. Your partner’s gone. They gave up looking for you in Vale._

“See, I knew you were just messing with me about Ruby being dead.”

Neopolitan stared at her. 

“What?” Weiss craned her head to better get a look at the mute criminal. “ _What?_ Come on. Spit it out, won’t you? Not going to taunt me again? Don’t you want to?”

Neopolitan adjusted Roman’s hat. She was dressed in a new suit, Hush clipped to her waist. She looked like a million Lien. Ready to kick ass and take names. Idly, Weiss told her as much.

 _The next time I get the opportunity,_ Neopolitan wrote, _I really am going to kill your partner._

Weiss said, “Goodbye.”

Neopolitan’s pen hovered over the notepad. She started to write something, then stopped, and crossed the words out. She looked at Weiss. Just looked at her. She set the pen down gently and flipped the notepad closed, as if closing on a chapter in her life. 

Neopolitan picked up Myrtenaster. Weiss thought maybe she was going to take it with her. Instead, she came over and put it on the ground in front of Weiss.

She left.

++

Time passed slowly. The snow fell. Weiss studied the weather and dozed fitfully.

++

“Listen,” Yang said. “You like Ruby, don’t you?”

Weiss blushed violently. “Of course I _like_ her, she’s my partner and my friend.”

“Riggght,” Yang said. “And that’s all you feel for her? Friendship feelings?”

“...Most definitely.”

“It’s okay, you know,” Yang said. Her expression turned strangely serious. “Being gay, or whatever. I know you didn’t have the best parents growing up, and maybe they told you some weird things, but no one will think of you any less for it.”

“I know,” Weiss whispered. She looked away, feeling a bit overwhelmed nonetheless.

Yang reached out and squeezed her shoulder. The gesture was oddly charming, the ‘I’m here for you’ contained within it clear. “We don’t hang out enough,” Yang said. “Let’s do something together, yeah?”

“Like what?”

“Like this. Think fast!”

Weiss didn’t have time to react before the snowball hit her flat in the face. She spluttered in indignation while Yang, laughing uproariously, ran off into the distance... 

++

“You did it!” Ilia shouted, jumping to her feet. 

“I-I did?” Weiss repeated. She looked at the white, spinning glyph on the ground in front of her. The disbelief faded, replaced by an indescribable joy. “Oh wow! I did it!”

Months of trial and error, hard work, leading to this moment. Somehow, unlocking her Semblance was the most rewarding thing that could have happened to her. It was better than the feeling of scoring well on another test, getting the praise of her tutors. It was better, even, then Father’s miniscule nods of approval in the wake of her presentations and concerts, the perfect actions of a perfect heiress.

Ilia beamed. Her smile was wide and pulled at Weiss’s chest. There was no jealousy in her expression, no reprobation, even when Weiss knew that Ilia hadn’t unlocked hers yet. “I’m so happy for you,” Ilia said, earnestly.

The glyph spun faster, broke apart. Bits of snow dusted Ilia’s hair, her pink cheeks, and Weiss held back the yearning to reach out and touch her.

“Thanks,” Weiss said. Then, honestly, “I’m happy, too.”

++

“Hey, Weiss! Hey! Think fast!”

Weiss ducked Ruby’s throw and the snowball went arching over her head. A flick of her wrist and a glyph formed beneath the surface of the snowbank. A wave of snow rose up and doused her partner.

“What!” Ruby squawked. “That’s not fair!”

“Nice one!” Yang cackled, reaching over to high-five Weiss.

“Cold, brutal, and efficient,” Blake nodded admiringly. “I expected no less.”

Ruby turned those silver eyes at her. Big puppy dog eyes. Weiss tried to resist. 

“Okay, fine,” Weiss said, giving up after a couple of seconds. “Okay. What do you want, Ruby? How do I make this up to you?”

“Whipped,” Yang said. Blake chortled. Weiss shot the two of them a half-hearted glare.

Ruby’s eyes, in the meantime, took on a suspicious gleam. She pointed off into the distance. “You see JNPR over there?”

“Uh huh, yes?”

“You see Pyrrha?”

“...Yes?”

“This is what you’re going to do,” Ruby rocked on her heels, took in an all-too excited breath. “You’re going to walk up to Pyrrha, all hoity-toity like, you’re going to make small talk to her, get her to lower her guard… And then BAM! When she’s least suspecting it! You straight up—” 

++

The knight’s fist smashed solidly into her face. Weiss fell back, sprawling. Her Aura flickered.

Blood ran down the left side of her face.

Drip…

Drip...

++

...into the sink, running over her knuckles, the blood. Klein in the doorway in open-mouthed horror. It wasn’t going to scar, Weiss had made sure of it. The razor hadn’t gone that deep.

Still, the risk… If the press got wind of this, they would have a field day. Just like back then, when her mother had killed herself. _Extra, extra! Hear all about it! Another expose into the sordid life of the Schnees!_

The cut hurt. 

But Weiss really… she really didn’t feel anything. Emotionally. So he had been telling the truth, had he? Now she really could be Father’s perfect heiress...

Drip…

Drip…

Ha...

It was so funny.

She wanted to grieve, to feel sad for the loss of herself, but she couldn’t.

“Klein,” Weiss said. Her voice was strange, a stranger’s voice, from a distance, her mouth moving but not entirely of her own will, somewhere underwater. “I’m sorry. Due to circumstances beyond our control, I’m afraid you’ll have to be let go…”

++

The Ursa roared, took a swipe at her and narrowly missed rolling her head off. The spikes protruding from its back glowed a ghastly green. Weiss scrambled backwards, hearing the frantic warnings of her teammate.

 _Remember your training!_ Winter’s voice barked in her head. _Focus, Weiss!_

“Gotcha!” Ruby said, her scythe sounding out its angelic death rattle, tearing through the Grimm like paper, saving her, and Weiss’s mouth slightly hung open despite herself, gods, Ruby was just so—

++

“I guess they are beautiful in their own way,” Weiss commented. She put her hand against the glass of the tank, studying the giant Grimm suspended inside of it. She could feel a dark chill emanating from within, the kind of feeling that normally only Salem could evocate. “Doctor Watts says he could do better, though.”

“Doctor Watts is an egomaniac,” Merlot snapped, completely missing the irony. He adjusted his glasses. “Unfortunately, these specimens aren’t quite perfect yet. They’re missing a certain...”

“Pizzaz?” Weiss suggested. That was a Tyrian word. 

“No,” Merlot frowned. He seemed disgruntled. “Not that.”

“Maybe add fire,” Cinder purred, emerging from the shadows of the lab like the drama queen she was. She also put her hand to the tank, the same hand, Weiss knew, that was hiding that strange Grimm bug inside of it. “I do like fire.”

There was a bit of camaraderie to be had here. A strange shared sense of fascination with that black, horrid creature floating inside. Cinder had her Grimm bug to explain it. Weiss…

“Do you think Grimm really are mindless?” Weiss asked. “Just because they don’t have a soul? I mean, it doesn't make sense that Grimm are the way they are because they're soulless. Plenty of things in the world don't have souls and aren't Grimmlike.”

“Getting philosophical, are we, Schnee?” Cinder said. Still, Cinder thought about the question for a couple of seconds before offering a non-answer: “It’s not like you.”

 _I don't know_ is Weiss had heard. Their hands pressed to the glass tank, their pinkies almost brushing. Weiss stared at the tiny space in between them until she stepped back.

Weiss said, “You should restrain yourself, Doctor Merlot. There are better ways to test your Grimm’s capabilities than razing random villages across Anima. People will wise up.”

“I think we can put these creatures to the test at Beacon,” Cinder said. "It will be good fun."

“No,” Weiss dismissed. “There's no need. Let's save them for later. Atlas."

“Oh?” Cinder said. Her tone took on an interested note. “‘Later’?"

“My help alone isn’t good enough for you, Fall?” Weiss frowned.

It was almost as if Cinder could tell what Weiss was really thinking, deep down. But that was also impossible, because nobody ever knew what she was really thinking, not even herself. The cold place had her locked up much too tightly for it.

++

It was time.

The Vytal Festival, the Nikos match rapidly coming up… Weiss couldn’t delay it any longer.

Well.

Cinder was probably going to kill her over this. Ever since she had successfully acquired half of the Fall Maiden’s power and gained some good old-fashioned lackeys, she had gotten unbearably arrogant and bitchy. Before, at least, they could hold somewhat civil conversations.

Weiss imagined Cinder’s furious, worked up expression. The whole _plot_ about to get laid bare to the world. Working with Weiss had ended up being her greatest misfortune.

Weiss called her secretary at the SDC. “It looks like I will be unavoidably detained in Vale for a few more days,” Weiss said, calmly. “Keep Miss Polendina and Miss Amitola in Atlas for me, will you?”

Then, she called her estate. “Just checking on my affairs,” she said. “Yes. Good to see it’s all in order. No, I won’t reconsider. Thank you.”

She dialed Whitley’s number. Stopped herself from hitting the call button. As for Winter, there was no use even in thinking of her. Her thumb, hovering uselessly over the surface of her Scroll, while her brain tried to work through what to do next.

A decision. The hospital: “Continue with the treatment,” Weiss said, after listening to the doctors blab on and on about things she could care less about. “Yes. If there’s any hope that my father can be saved, do it.”

Weiss tried her best to be an honest person, but that may have been the most egregious lie she had ever told.

She thought, _Oh_ . _I don't remember where Mother is buried_. Even if she wanted to visit, it would be impossible.

And so that was—

++

“Even I cannot fix you, dear thing,” Salem said, the darkness of the Grimmland spread around them like a physical, pulsating presence. This was their first meeting, and Weiss stared up blankly at the immortal, unkillable queen of Grimm, thinking she might’ve heard something distant crumble inside of her chest. “How utterly pitiable you are.”

“And if you don’t really desire anything anymore,” Salem continued, stepping down from her throne, her pale inhuman mouth forming a smile, “then let me guide you and shape your desires.”

“I, too, know what it means to live meaninglessly.”

“We are dead people walking.”

++

_All I wanted was—_

++

“—to kiss you,” Weiss said, hushed, reverently. “Can I?”

++

_—to be a good person._

_…_

_Yeah._

_That’s all._

…

…

_But I can't. It's so hard. I can't._

_If... If just one good thing, before I die..._

“Can you get me up there?”

“Ruby, stop. Do you see that giant Grimm? This is insane—“

“I promised Jaune I’d get Pyrrha back. I promised.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

“Weiss—“

“I’m coming with you. Okay? Let’s go.”

Pyrrha vanishing.

Cinder Fall’s burning, burning gaze.

(“We could’ve had everything,” Cinder hissed. The point of her heel dug deep into Weiss’s torso, something in there giving away with a sharp, wet snap. “Why? Why would you try to betray us? Betray _me?_ ”

“I wanted to see if I would feel something,” Weiss said. She turned her head to the side. “But it turns out, of course, that I still don’t.”

Cinder reached for her throat—)

Ruby—

A bright flash.

++

The doorbell rang.

Weiss blinked.

It rang again. Soon after, a raucous pounding began to rise up from the direction of the living room.

It had stopped snowing sometime ago. The day had turned into night. How long had she been in her chair? Weiss felt cold.

What the hell had that been? That last memory?

Silver eyes… Silver eyes! Ruby Rose had used them on Cinder and the other Weiss had been caught in the blast—

Weiss’s brain automatically matched the timelines. When Ruby Rose had been in the process of turning herself into a living weapon of mass destruction, in Weiss’s original world, Cinder had been on the verge of killing her. There was no reason to think Cinder shouldn’t have succeeded. The entirely one-sided fight had happened in one of their hideouts, a Schnee Dust warehouse, during which Weiss had blacked out. After the fight, from what Weiss could piece together, her body had somehow been found lying half-dead near Beacon grounds by some intrepid students. Then, it had been carted off to the hospital, before the other Weiss eventually woke up inside it. 

One thing which had always nagged at her but she had never given too much thought to: why hadn’t Cinder just gone and killed her back at the warehouse? Why had she spared Weiss's life? Sentimental feeling? That was just plainly ludicrous. How could the other Weiss have woken up alive in her body in the first place when her body should have been dead?

“Don’t tell me,” Weiss groaned as she voiced her thoughts out loud. “This whole body swap thing happened somehow because of what Ruby Rose did at Beacon Tower?”

Interesting theory. She could sort of see the point where things converged—both Cinders and Weisses being in proximity of one another at the exact same time in both worlds. When she had been slogging through university, she had read a great deal of academic literature on the interaction of Semblances and the space-time continuum. The general consensus was that Semblances screwed with reality on a level that was unexplainable by science.

Weiss wouldn’t be surprised if silver eyes screwed with reality on a level that blew Semblances out of the water. Those eldritch _things_ defied all, pardon the pun, semblances of logic. She wouldn’t be surprised if silver eyes could somehow punch a hole straight through the fabric of reality.

...Well, either way, it didn’t really matter.

Weiss was far, far away from any silver eyes now. And if she had it her way, she would remain as far away as possible forever, thank you very much.

“Weiss!” came an unfortunately familiar, angry voice then. A distant doorknob rattled. “I know you’re in there! Open the door before I break it down!”

Huh.

What the fuck?

Half-convinced this was some kind of auditory hallucination, Weiss didn’t do anything. A few moments later, she was rewarded with the loud splintering of wood and the whump of the door collapsing onto the floor.

Okay.

Not a hallucination, then.

Weiss rose from the chair and decided she'd put a kettle of hot water to boil. Time had gotten away from her, and she was hungry. Perhaps her unwanted guest was hungry, too, and could be convinced by method of shitty food to leave. It seemed to have worked on Neopolitan, after all.

Then Yang Xiao Long strolled into the kitchen in her tall, blonde glory. In sharp contrast to the last time Weiss had seen her, moping in her bedroom in the Xiao Long household in her pajamas, she was dressed in a tan jacket with orange lining, dark pants, knee-high leather boots. She was also sporting, from what Weiss could tell, a very shiny very yellow state of the art model prosthetic arm. There were probably guns in that arm.

“You look like a mess,” Yang said, bluntly, “and I’m the one who got fucked up.”

“Hi, Yang,” Weiss said.

“I’m—” Yang took a deep breath “—really really mad at you.”

“For good reason, I’m sure.”

“I heard that you pretty much broke Ruby’s heart. Which means, legally, I’m allowed to break every bone in your body now.”

The kettle whistled. Weiss cleared her throat.

“We had a disagreement,” she put, delicately.

Yang looked her up and down again. Her red eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with your hand?” she demanded.

“I broke it before you could have the chance to,” Weiss said. Then, she added, “Malangulation from healing improperly. Might have to undergo corrective surgery if I ever want to fix it. I think I’m going to make, let’s see… Cup noodles. Want some?”

“ _Weiss,”_ Yang said, dangerously.

Weiss poured the hot water into the styrofoam cups. Two of them, just in case. Now for the long, awkward three minute wait, Yang seemingly trying to launch daggers at Weiss through her eyeballs all the while, Weiss ignoring the glare fairly easily. Yang could probably do a thing or two about learning how to effectively utilize laser eyes from her sister.

“I don’t know what to say,” Weiss eventually said.

“How about you start with an explanation,” Yang said, “and a damn good one at that.”

“Hm,” Weiss said. “I’m willing to do quid pro quo. How did you find me here? I thought you would still be moping in Patch?” She was genuinely curious to learn this information. “Give me an explanation, and I’ll give you one back."

“I was able to find you because someone tipped me off,” Yang said, tersely. 

“Who?”

“Someone you really shouldn’t have been hanging around.”

“Wow,” Weiss said, surprised. “I guess I didn’t give Neopolitan enough credit. She’s really gotten under my skin in an amazing way.”

“Weiss!” Yang growled.

“Yang,” Weiss parroted. 

“I am not playing games here! Fucking explain yourself!”

There was a moment of silence. Weiss didn’t really enjoy people yelling at her. It was a nuisance. Once upon a time, the yelling would have probably made her shrink back, flinch hard, even start to tear up if she was feeling especially self-loathing. As it were, Weiss got a fork from a drawer and stuck it into the noodles.

“Ruby wanted to go to Haven,” Weiss said. “And I didn’t. So we went our separate ways. It’s pretty much as simple as that.”

“But it’s not that simple,” Yang growled. “You hurt her. And then you had the gall to up and just run away.”

“Why is it that not wanting to go on a suicidal quest which involves walking all the way to the opposite side of another _continent_ count as ‘running away’?” Weiss said. “It's not personal. There's no reason it should be personal."

“She’s your partner! It’s by definition personal! Don’t you feel bad at all?”

“I feel…” Weiss said. “No. I don’t really feel bad. I kind of hate her.”

Yang’s eyes flashed. She stepped toward Weiss. Her new prosthetic was trembling—well, wasn’t that a familiar sight to Weiss, who had a bad habit of trembling herself? Yang looked like she wanted to hit Weiss.

 _Yang reached out and squeezed her shoulder. The gesture was oddly charming, the ‘I’m here for you’ contained within it clear._ Weiss groaned and slammed a fist into her forehead. She felt nauseous. 

“Yeah,” Weiss said, straining. Then again, so her words could be heard clearly, “I hate Ruby Rose.”

_“Gotcha!” Ruby said, her scythe sounding out its angelic death rattle, tearing through the Grimm like paper, saving her—_

Weiss groaned. She asked the cold place to do its thing, but it was unusually unresponsive. It was likely there were simply too many stressors, too many stimulants here at the same time. Yang. The memories. Figuring out how the body switch had happened. Yang. The fucking memories. The memories, the memories, why wouldn’t they ever just fucking let _up_ —

Weiss stumbled toward the sink and threw up before she could help herself. These days, it felt like her body was always betraying her. Well, it wasn’t really her body, was it? Maybe it could somehow sense that its owner wasn’t quite right… Maybe it couldn’t help itself by reaching out for those memories. Disgusting.

“Weiss,” Yang finally spoke. The anger in her voice had been arrested by a curious, ineffable something. “Are you sick?”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Weiss wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Are you asking if I’m physically ill or if I have something wrong in the head?”

“Stop that."

“Stop what?”

“Stalling,” Yang said. “Changing the subject. Pushing people away. Tring to provoke me. It’s not like you. It’s not going to work.”

“Aren’t you suddenly a great psychologist? What an amazing insight. And just a couple weeks ago, what, you were lying in bed feeling all sorry for yourself, all depressed, just because you’re partner ditched you, your arm all cut up by some two bit terrorist—“

“I told you to stop.”

Yang crossed the last bit of distance between them in a flash. Yang’s cool metal fingers closed around her wrist. Weiss stopped talking.

“You haven’t been sleeping,” Yang said.

“Sure,” Weiss said.

Yang picked up the cup noodles with her free hand. “Is this all you’ve been eating all this time? This junk?”

“Maybe.”

Yang threw it into the sink with force. It splattered. Then she looked Weiss up and down, and said, “You _are_ sick, aren't you? You were never the most well-built but somehow you’ve lost even more weight. You’re as pale as a ghost. You’re shivering.”

Weiss hadn’t realized that last part. She immediately made a conscious effort to suppress it.

“As soon as you go away, it’ll get better,” Weiss said.

“If it’s not obvious yet, I’m not going anywhere until I get an explanation,” Yang said, “and what you told me sure as hell wasn’t an explanation.”

“Can you let go of me?”

“Are you going to run away?”

“No, I just need to throw up again.”

After she was done emptying the last bits of her stomach, Weiss said, “Alright. So.”

“Weiss.”

“I’m thinking.”

How to get out of this? she wondered. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, however that saying went. At least Neopolitan, in the beginning, had been easy to distract, when just a mention Roman would be enough to work her into a senseless, mindless rage. From what little Weiss understood of Yang Xiao Long's profile, the same techniques should have also worked on her. But it seemed Yang Xiao Long had leveled up on the emotional spectrum.

Weiss asked, “How’s Taiyang?"

“Worried about you,” Yang said, easily. "He wants you to move back to Patch. Are you coming? I'll gladly drag you back there with me.”

Ah. Fuck. Well, Weiss knew that had been a bad attempt, anyways. 

“I am ‘sick’, I suppose,” Weiss began, slowly, “in a sense.” 

“In what sense.”

“In the sense that it’s one of the reasons I can’t go with Ruby Rose and friends on their hellish road trip."

“How are you sick, Weiss?”

“It’s not life-threatening, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Weiss.”

“Yang.”

A moment of silence.

“I lost my Aura and Semblance,” Weiss said.

Yang said, “What?”

Weiss repeated, “I lost my Aura and Semblance. Compared to your lot I’m practically as fragile as paper, I can’t do anything without tripping over something and almost killing myself. The road trip was a bad idea in its conception but especially for me because I don’t even have the ability to fight off one of those most basic of Grimm Beowolf things. Besides the fact that I didn’t want to die, I would’ve just been a cinder block that slowed everyone down. Yeah, my presence would’ve been no good for everyone involved. Also, if you don’t let go of me again in the next thirty seconds, your hand is going to leave bruises.”

Another moment of silence. Then Yang let go of her arm.

“Ruby doesn’t know?”

“Why the hell would I let her or anyone else for that matter know?” Weiss said. “Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s a private fucking matter?”

“For fuck’s sake!” Yang shouted. She was getting angry again. “We’re your team!”

“So? I don’t give a damn.”

“You fucking liar—“

“I don’t lie, at best I obfuscate the truth—“

“What’s the other reason? You said it was one of the reasons you couldn’t go with Ruby to Haven. What’s the other reason?”

Weiss opened her mouth, then clicked it shut. The slip had been totally unintentional. Something like that would have never happened back in Atlas, in her world, as the perfect and in control CEO of the SDC. She really was losing it.

“What’s worse,” Yang said, “than losing your Aura and Semblance? Huh?”

“Nothing,” Weiss said, mechanically. “There’s nothing worse than that.”

“How is it even _possible_ that—“

“For just one second of your life use your fucking brain, Yang Xiao Long. Come on. What gives people Aura and Semblance? Their _soul_.”

Yang stared at Weiss like she was a stranger. It was a fitting because she was. “There’s something wrong with your soul?” Yang said.

“There’s something wrong with my soul,” Weiss affirmed. “It’s been, well. It’s been a bit damaged. Or a lot damaged, I don’t know, things of this nature are inherently difficult to quantify. But okay, if I really am coming clean about the situation, I've actually gotten to the point where I’m practically convinced I don’t even have it anymore. My soul, that is.”

She took a breath. Things were dead silent again. The logic, flow of the words, now that she had finally begun talking about this… topic, came with a preternatural ease.

“I’m…” Weiss started. She furrowed her eyebrows. So, maybe it wasn’t that simple to talk about. “I’m broken. I’m like a defective machine. One day, the cogs inside of me ground to a halt and they were never able to start again. I don’t feel love anymore. I don’t feel happiness. I don’t feel guilt or empathy or compassion. For the most part, I almost don’t feel anything at all. Sometimes I get a little angry. Or frustrated, or afraid, or resentful. Dim moments of satisfaction. But the rest of the time… Geez. It’s all just so cold and numb to me.”

“You’re crying,” Yang said. 

“Not because I want to cry,” Weiss said. Sure enough, the tears were rolling down her face, without reprieve. “It’s just this body’s reaction. A remnant. I’m not really sad. I don’t feel anything right now, except the desire for you to go the fuck away, because you’re being an inconvenience to me. They’re meaningless tears.”

It was the reason those dreams were so awful. The other Weiss Schnee’s memories and the unabashed, unadulterated emotions they contained within them. They were all so overwhelming. The things Weiss couldn’t really feel herself anymore.

Fingers trembling.

Crying.

Wanting to hit things.

Wanting to kiss someone.

Just physical reactions. 

She remembered what it was like to be in love but she didn’t feel it anymore.

She remembered what it was to want to die, too. At least she didn’t feel that anymore also.

She was just… there. Existing.

She wished she didn’t have to remember anything. If, what, a bolt of lightning could just strike her, and she just forgot it all, then maybe a quiet, know nothing life would finally—

Man. Who was she kidding. Even if that somehow happened, the fundamentals of anything wouldn’t change. Her soul was fucked on such a level that even the immortal queen of darkness hell bent on bringing about the end of the world couldn’t fix it. You knew things were bad when Salem felt sorry for you.

The cold place inside of her, the dead garden, not really a place at all but a giant gaping void of nothingness that swallowed up everything.

“Well, I’m not leaving,” Yang said. “I’m not leaving you alone."

“You don't get it. You're not going to get anywhere with me, Yang,” Weiss sighed. "I'm a different person now."

++

In the other world, it was also snowing. Weiss touched her face and wondered why she was crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I probably messed up the timeline somehow with all the seasons and stuff but given it’s not entirely clear in the show how much time passes I’ll cut myself some slack there
> 
> Yeah the other Weiss is basically like, Voldemort lmao. She doesn’t know if she wants to be an ordinary person again, or if she’s okay with just being the way she is. Sometimes she thinks one way, sometimes the other. At the same time, she’s not suicidal and she likes being alive if only because biologically people like to live. So she’s just kind of like, fine, whatever, I’ll just exist somewhere doing nothing feeling nothing thinking nothing all on my own. Of course, she's also a bit in denial because it's clear she doesn't actually feel nothing. She's just convinced herself of it. Hopefully Yang will finally get her out of that apartment...
> 
> As always, thanks for reading guys!


	16. Chapter 16

“Oh no!” Penny gasped softly. “Miss Schnee…”

“I’m okay, don’t worry,” Weiss said. She was more embarrassed about the tears than anything else. “Actually, I… really have no idea why I’m crying.”

“Do you require physical contact? May I offer you a hug?”

“I’m just going to duck in here for a bit, if you don’t mind waiting for me.” She excused herself, entered the nearby bathroom alone, and made a beeline for the sink. It really was an odd moment to be suffering an apparent emotional breakdown. 

Weiss scrubbed her face until she was satisfied that no trace of tears remained.

She studied her reflection.

“Come on,” she said, half-heartedly. “Are you serious? Isn’t it getting excessive at this point?”

Her reflection said nothing.

“If you want an update on my life at all, I’m living at Beacon now. The Headmaster thought given the attempt on my life, it would be safer for me at Beacon, where he can keep a closer eye on things... It’s completely strange, it feels like everything’s been turned on its head all over again, and sometimes I have to wonder if I’m not dreaming.”

Another moment of silence. Weiss’s reflection still said nothing. It was just an ordinary reflection, after all. Weiss touched her cheek, where her scar should have been in her original body. Such a distinctive part of herself, but one day, would she wake up and discover she had forgotten what it looked like? 

“What I have been dreaming about is our mother‘s death. Her funeral,” Weiss said, finally. “Whitley was too young to know any better. He blamed you because it had been your birthday, the fight. Winter was always emotionally absent afterwards. She tried, sometimes, but for the most part, she had already checked out of the manor. Father started drinking. He wasn’t a kind drunk. I don’t know why I was so surprised to learn that when I know firsthand that he can be cruel. I think it might have been because for me, Father was always the put together one while Mother was the one who fell to pieces.

“Look. I’m not happy at all with the things you’ve done. But from a certain perspective, I can understand why. When we were younger, we were once very similar. Up to a point, actually, our lives were identical.”

Radio silence. Like all her previous attempts at communication, it was a lost cause. Weiss pulled away from the sink with a sigh. Well, she could keep trying. It didn’t hurt her to try. The other Weiss couldn’t avoid her forever, right?

“Uhhhhh,” a voice awkwardly broke in. “Sorry that it seems like you have a lot on your plate.”

Weiss froze. No. No way. She turned her head slowly, in time to see Jaune Arc shuffle out of the nearby stall.

A couple of expletives ran through Weiss’s mind. “What are you doing here?!” she demanded.

“Um, using the bathroom? What else?” Jaune shrank back. “I guess I’ll just, wash my hands now.”

Beacon and its gender neutral bathrooms. Who knew that was going to be the death of her. “If you tell anyone what you heard, Jaune,” Weiss said, fighting off a tinge of panic. “I swear, I will—“

“I won’t tell anyone! I promise!” Jaune yelped. “I’m not like that. Besides, I didn’t really catch most of what you said, just that you sounded… upset.”

“Well. Good.”

“Yeah.”

“But if you do tell anyone, I’m warning you, I will find out,” Weiss threatened. “ _I will.”_

“You’re kind of scary,” Jaune said. Then, he said, more brightly, “Hey. Wait a second. How do you know my name?”

“...I know Ruby. She told me.”

“Are you one of the transfer students? I thought you guys all returned to your schools since the Vytal Festival ended? I’ve never seen you around before.”

Weiss stared at Jaune. She wasn’t wearing anything resembling a school uniform. Jaune gave a befuddled smile back at her. If Weiss squinted at his face from the right angle, she could kind of see the appeal of it, why Pyrrha would like it.

“What’s your name?” he asked in a perfectly friendly way. Despite all the headlines, it was obvious he didn’t really know what ‘Weiss Schnee’ looked like.

“Never change, Jaune,” Weiss told him.

++

When Weiss came out of the bathroom with Jaune tagging along, Penny immediately launched into an excitable burst of questions at their new companion. They walked together for a while before parting ways at a hallway intersection. Jaune, headed back to class (and what a strange, alien idea that was to Weiss, oh right, one Beacon blown up and she had almost been murdered but the other Beacon still here and class in session), Weiss and Penny headed towards the courtyard where Weiss was to meet up with some SDC representatives.

The current situation:

Yes, Weiss was living at Beacon. Yes, there were a considerable number of people who now knew about the specifics of her bodyswapping predicament. Among this number of people included Ozpin and his allies. Ilia, Penny. Ruby, Blake. Possibly Yang, by extension. 

Blake… Just thinking about how her teammate-not-teammate had managed to strong-arm herself into the should-have-been secretive meeting was giving Weiss a headache. 

“Why can’t I hear what _she_ has to say?” Blake had said, pointing at Weiss. In Weiss’s original world, she had always somewhat admired Blake’s willingness to stick to her beliefs and fight for what she believed was right. Except at the moment in Ozpin’s office, that tendency of hers was making things difficult. “It’s unacceptable that you would even think of acquitting her given what she has done!”

“I’m surprised you would have come to that conclusion that anyone is thinking of acquitting anyone, Miss Belladonna,” Ozpin had said, mildly. 

“It was pretty obvious when you singlehandedly stopped the trial and went up to her stand to talk to her after that rubbish with the arbiter,” Blake said, icily. “With all due respect, Headmaster, no one should have the kind of power you do.”

“I’m willing to explain it to you, too, if you’d like,” Weiss said, haltingly. “My, um, extenuating circumstances. Professor Ozpin. We can trust her.”

“Because of your ‘team’, yes?” Ozpin said. “But just like with _you,_ you have to know, they are not the same people.”

“I trust Blake.”

“What, did you get my name from ‘him’?” Blake spat, suddenly rounding on Weiss much to Weiss’s confusion. “Is that how you know me?”

“Of course he’s who immediately you think of. The two of you really are obsessed with one another,” Ilia sneered. “You were _made_ for each other.”

“Teenagers,” Qrow shook his head. Ironwood just looked tired, Goodwitch impatient as the nameless pronoun game went on pointlessly for a while between Ilia and Blake, Ozpin and Weiss respectively.

In the end, Weiss had no choice but to go over her story again from the start. Blake hadn’t believed it, of course. Weiss had had to prove it to her.

“I knew your locker combination for Gambol Shroud because we were—are—friends and teammates in my world.”

“You could’ve hacked it. Or gotten lucky. Ruby was there with you, she could’ve told you it, too.”

“I know other things about you that I shouldn’t be able to know.”

Blake tensed. “Such as?” she challenged. Weiss’s eyes drifted to the bow Blake was wearing. No, it wouldn’t have been right. Not here in front of so many people turning it into a semi-public space. Weiss would have to think of something else...

“Your favorite hobby is reading,” Weiss said. “Specifically, your favorite book is, err, I don’t really quite remember the title, but the main characters are essentially ninjas, and they, uh, throughout the duration of the story, get up to some strange things. You know. Things. During the day, you hide the book under your bed, but at night when you don’t think anyone else is awake, sometimes you’ll take it out to read.”

Weiss pinked. Blake said, quickly, also pinking, “You don’t have to go on. I got it.”

“What things?” Penny asked innocently, and everyone in the room pretended not to have heard her, except for Qrow who snorted. Weiss was glad to see that Penny was alright after that disaster of a trial, but she had also been so so confused at Penny’s reappearance, without so much as an explanation, accompanying Ironwood and Blake and Ilia. With everything going on, Weiss had figured she would ask after Penny later.

And that was when Ozpin had basically kicked everyone except for the adults and Weiss out of his office, much to a couple of loud objections, citing cryptic security concerns. And then Weiss had managed to force herself through the difficult process of describing the Fall of Beacon, and she had found herself on the receiving end of a new round of arguing and intense interrogation, mostly courtesy of Qrow, a heavy atmosphere of general disbelief pervading the air, except for with Ozpin who remained looking totally and completely unphased where he sat behind his desk, continuing to look unphased as he proceeded without much fanfare to drop the immortal unkillable queen of darkness bombshell.

What a day that had been! All wrapped up and nicely concluded with an exhaustion, panic, and anger-fueled argument with the other Weiss, the first argument after some lengthy time of un-communication, who had promptly displayed her usual brand of nonchalance and unhelpful ‘go fuck yourself’ attitude before disappearing, not to be seen once again. 

One good thing about the other Weiss, if Weiss could seriously attempt to say a good thing about her counterpart, was that at all times, at least you knew where you stood with her in terms of your interpersonal relationship: poorly. This was not true with the vast majority of other people Weiss was currently in contact with. Ilia. Ruby. Blake. Ozpin. Even Penny, to an extent. Right now, Weiss had no idea where she stood with any of them. If she had to make a bad metaphor, it was like each relationship was a pot of water held to a flame except each pot contained different quantities of water and the flames were of varying strength and yes things were definitely simmering uncomfortably in all the pots and heating up but you had no idea when the respective pots were going to boil and blow over nor how badly the mess was going to be when it happened nor which person was going to be the one to go ahead and brave lifting the proverbial lid. Sooner or later, something was going to give, but at the moment, that hadn’t happened yet.

“You’re looking well, Miss Schnee!” the first man in the suit in the courtyard said. He brushed a fleck of snow from his shiny hair and extended a hand. “Cerise Anderson, at your service. I’m the head of your new legal team here in Vale.”

Cerise gave her a snake-like smile that made Weiss’s skin crawl. Gray had often smiled like that in the beginning, too, but never to this extremity of fakeness. It had to say something about the situation that she almost found herself missing her old lawyer.

“So then, how are things?” Weiss asked, reluctantly.

“Splendid,” Cerise said. “Very much so! That special deal the Beacon Headmaster hastened to push through was really something else. I have to say, Miss Schnee, I’m quite impressed. What’s your trade secret? How did you do it?”

“There is no secret. The fact is that I’m not guilty. The Headmaster simply recognized that fact and decided to expedite things to save everyone the time.”

“Of course, of course! Well, the paperwork is coming along smoothly. Soon you won’t have to worry about this problem at all, it’ll just be a blip in the past, like with all the other incidents! Back to business as usual!”

Cerise smiled again, a flash of teeth. _Business as usual_.The insinuation made Weiss uncomfortable. She forced a tightlipped nod.

“Speaking of ‘business as usual’,” another man in a suit off to the side spoke with a clearing of his throat. “Miss Schnee. I cannot stress enough the number of urgent, very urgent company matters you must take care of.”

A third man said, “The Board is getting quite anxious. The quarterly conference is coming up soon, we need to give guidance, and while the financials have been absolutely smashing this quarter the uncertainty around your situation has shaken a lot of investor confidence—”

“Will we expect you to be at the quarterly meeting? Even if you don’t give a statement, just your appearance ought to be enough to soothe most of the fearmongering—”

“There are also contracts that need to be signed, a couple of our biggest suppliers have gone over the COO and are demanding to speak to you personally, we’ve hired a new CFO but per company policy, we can’t move forward with his placement until you give your explicit approval—”

“—unforeseen difficulties in implementing the new fulfillment centers—”

“—recurring overhead costs—”

“—takeover bids to field—”

“—Miss Schnee—”

“—Miss Schnee—”

It was clear there was no real end to the list. Penny looked over in concern as Weiss brought her hand to massage her forehead, not bothering to hide her groan. “You know for the time being due to my ambiguous legal situation I can’t return to Atlas,” Weiss said. She had no desire to return to Atlas even if she could. “But like I said over Scroll, I’ve taken the time to make the necessary arrangements with the Headmaster to set up a temporary office here at Beacon. We can talk things better there and figure out the best way to proceed with the company.”

They started walking, the SDC men continuing to besiege her with questions and concerns much to her irritation. Hadn’t she just said they could talk better at the office? Cerise took the opportunity in a brief lull in the conversation to slink up besides her.

“You really must say, Miss Schnee, how you managed to get into the Headmaster’s good graces,” Cerise said. “It’s quite remarkable.”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I tried to explain,” Weiss replied.

She hadn't even started yet, and she was already tired.

++

Ilia ducked into the forge. The heat from the furnaces immediately made her uncomfortable and prickle all over. It was the way her skin naturally was, she couldn’t help being especially sensitive and attuned to changes in temperature. In some respects, she considered herself lucky. There were some reptile Faunus that were straight-up cold-blooded.

The girl she was looking for was hunched over a workbench, humming a cheerful tune as she assembled Lightning Lash.

“She’s all good!” Ruby announced. “You should be able to use all different kinds of Dust now, no problem-o.”

“It’s heavier,” Ilia said as she picked up her weapon, examined it. “What did you change?”

"I added a few extra chambers, reinforced the base, but she’s still a lightweight champ! I can change the hilt composition to better balance the blade if you would like?”

Ilia said it wouldn’t be necessary, nodded a ‘thanks’, and holstered her weapon. She’d test it out on the training fields later. Ruby didn’t bother with continuing the conversation and went straight to another workbench, where the scattered parts of what looked like a different weapon were lying around, and started tinkering. 

Over the past couple weeks, while Ilia wouldn’t say they had become friends, Ruby and her had been spending a lot of time together. It was a bit out of necessity. Ilia didn’t really know anyone at Beacon besides Ruby, however barely she knew Ruby in the first place, and since she was avoiding Weiss it meant she was avoiding by extension Penny. Ruby, meanwhile, someone Ilia who had thought on first impression to be really outgoing and extroverted, was actually kind of socially awkward and didn’t apparently have many friends. There had also been a vague implication that things weren’t going so hot for her with her team at the moment, but Ilia hadn’t pressed the matter, just as Ruby hadn’t pressed her on hers. They had by their various circumstances found themselves often ‘hanging out’.

Leaning against the wall, away from the heat of the furnaces, Ilia watched Ruby work for a while. Ruby was, Ilia had to admit, basically a prodigy. From what little she had seen, the silver-eyed girl’s combat skills were par none. And she was a great weapons mechanic. Ilia had only offhandedly mentioned how Lightning Lash had been acting a little funky since the Paladin fight, and it had taken Ruby mere seconds to diagnose the problem and the method to fix it as well as generously offering her a complimentary upgrade.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Ruby said suddenly.

“Mind what?”

“I kind of filched your weapon’s design for this one,” Ruby said, and her voice took on a sheepish tone. “Well, as the framework for its model, at least.”

Ilia got a closer look at Ruby’s current project. She could see that it was some kind of rapier, too. The Dust chambers of the handle were similar in shape to Lightning Lash’s but much more complex, revolver-like, with a ricasso-esque guard. The blade was somewhat stouter and made of a silver-ish metal.

“What is that?” Ilia asked, curiously. “It’s a completely different class of weapon from your scythe.”

“So um, basically, I got to wondering that if Weiss really is a Huntress-in-training in her world, then that means she must have her own weapon, too, right?” Ruby said. “I love learning about other people’s weapons—it’s kind of my thing—so I asked her to describe everything she could remember about it to me. Later, I realized she must not have her weapon in our world if she had to borrow Blake’s to use at the courthouse, so I thought maybe I should go ahead and make a version of Myrtenaster for her so she can fight better the next time.”

“...Oh,” Ilia said. A sour taste arose in her mouth. _Myrtenaster._ “I see.”

“Yeah. I hope she likes it.”

Ilia said, voice dipping noticeably, “You don’t have to be so nice to her. She lied to you. She pretended to be someone she’s not.”

Ruby hesitated for a moment, her hands freezing over the parts on the bench, then she shrugged. “It’s good practice.”

The Weiss Ilia had known had never had a weapon. Her father had completely forbidden it. That was why they had always sneaked around on rooftops after school, why it had been a secret that Weiss had a Semblance and Aura at all, the things that Ilia had helped her unlock. Ilia had always lent Lightning Lash to Weiss when she needed it. For the other times, she had promised she would always be there to help if Weiss was in a pinch.

After Ilia had returned to Atlas, Weiss had told her, quite simply, “ _There’s no need for me to ever fight again. Actually, I now find the whole thing to be dreadfully barbaric. As you know, in the first place, I was never any good.”_

_“That’s not—”_

_“Oh, please. Our plan to run away and eventually become Huntresses? Doomed from the start. No school would’ve accepted me. It was such a stupid plan. Quite funny in hindsight.”_

But here the other Weiss was, regardless, supposedly a student at the most prestigious combat academy in the world… And Ilia had seen her fight at the courthouse, and truthfully she had been good, inexplicably good, far better than her Weiss had ever been. Ilia didn’t know why there was a part of her so fixated on that fact. The Weiss Ilia knew was, evidently, an unrepentant asshole that had all but abandoned everyone. Ilia shouldn’t have even been remotely close to feeling defensive and bitter on her behalf.

Altogether, Myrtenaster was a good-looking weapon. Sleek. Powerful. Ruby clicked the pieces together and spun the chamber.

“Can I hold it?” Ilia said, before she could stop herself.

Ruby glanced at her, a puzzled look. Then, Ruby smiled. “Yup, go ahead,” she said.

Ilia picked up the new rapier. There were still parts of it that were obviously missing. The feeling of the hilt was completely different but at once somehow familiar to her. Ilia tried to imagine Weiss holding and going through different fencing forms with a weapon like this. The image was jarring. Maybe another thing that was bothering her about the other Weiss’s ability to fight, the girl who had pretended to be the real Weiss, was that Ilia had gotten acclimated to the idea of having to constantly protect her when it turns out she really didn’t need protecting at all.

“You talk to her a lot?” Ilia said.

“You don’t?” Ruby creased her eyebrows. “A whole other world with whole other versions of us! From any point of view, it’s incredibly interesting.”

“How can you not be upset?”

“When I met her, it would have been after the swap already happened,” Ruby said. She paused. “And I don’t really feel like she lied _lied_ to me. Actually I’m glad there was an explanation. ‘How could someone seem so good but actually be so bad?’ I wondered. Well, turns out, she’s not actually the one who’s bad at all!”

 _The one who’s bad._ Did that mean Ilia’s Weiss was the one who seemed like a bad person and was a bad person? “That’s a naive way of looking at the world,” Ilia said, more harshly than she intended.

“That’s what Blake and Yang said to me, too,” Ruby said. Her voice grew a little quieter. “Is it really so wrong to want to believe the best in people?”

Ilia grimaced. She supposed trying to avoid someone and pretending they didn’t exist as if that would somehow make the problem disappear was a rather naive and wrong way to do things, too. It wasn’t that she was afraid to talk to the other Weiss per say. Actually, in the beginning, she had rather determined herself to go and give her a piece of her mind. But then she had gotten caught up in that new argument with Blake about Adam in the Headmaster’s office, and the Headmaster had kicked them out, possibly for the fighting, and then for some reason the opportunities to confront the other Weiss seemed to have just passed by one after the next. Ilia had also requested a room in the student quarters on the opposite end of campus from the faculty quarters, ostensibly because she didn’t feel comfortable imposing, and the extra space probably didn’t help.

Which really led into the biggest question: what the hell was Ilia even doing at Beacon now? If her Weiss wasn’t here, and the other Weiss didn’t need protecting, there was no reason at all for Ilia to be close to her at all, was there? Before the trial she had already been questioning what she was supposed to do with her life. Should she go back to Atlas? Leave things utterly unresolved just like Weiss had? Just cut her losses and take herself out of this stupid, ridiculous story?

Back when things were still good, Ilia’s Weiss had once described to her an interesting economics term called a ‘sunk cost’. A sunk cost referred to a cost that had already been paid and for which the money could not ever be recovered. Strictly speaking, a sunk cost should have no bearing on the future or your future decisions. If you knew a project was going to go poorly, even if you had already put a lot of time and effort and money into the project, you shouldn’t throw even more time and money into it in a desperate attempt to fix things and hope it turned out better. You should just cut your losses and move on. The sunk cost fallacy basically stated however that people are irrational. They do let sunk costs influence their decisions and justify specific actions, over and over again. In some cases, people were even able to recognize that they were committing the fallacy, but it was simply human not to be able to let things go.

Weiss Schnee was, essentially, the biggest sunk cost of Ilia’s life.

Ilia had to figure it out: was it really worth it to keep hanging on?

“Um,” Ruby broke into her thoughts.

“Sorry,” Ilia said, and handed back the rapier.

“I’m actually about to go over to see Weiss now,” Ruby said. Ruby blushed. “Or, er, have her see the weapon, I mean? Check if it looks okay so far?”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

“You should come with me.”

It was a little disconcerting how fast this girl could whiplash between cheerful and serious. Ilia thought of sunk costs again and she sighed.

She helped Ruby clean up the mess in the forge. It was the least she could do after Ruby’s help with Lightning Lash. Together, the two of them headed out.

“Hey, Ruby!” a blonde boy said brightly to them between buildings. “Listen, I met this really scary but pretty girl in the bathroom, who wasn’t actually that scary after we started talking, so I guess she was just pretty, but anyways, she said you told her my name?”

“Who?” Ruby said, cluelessly.

“She had white hair, blue eyes,” Jaune said. “About this tall.”

“Oh, that’s Weiss!” Ruby said. “Actually, I’m looking for her. Do you remember where she went?”

“You don’t even know where she is right now?” Ilia could have thrown her hands in the air. “Then where were we going before this conversation?“

“Wait, Weiss?” the blonde boy said, shocked. “As in, Weiss Schnee? SDC CEO Weiss? The Weiss all over the news? I thought it was just a rumor that she was at Beacon! How do you know her?”

“Heh, it’s a bit of a crazy story.”

“Team CFVY is organizing protests about the trial as we speak! Oh man, there’s a lot of people who are upset at Ozpin. Even Nora said she was ready to break someone’s legs. Then again, Nora actually says that often, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised…”

“The acquittal was for a good reason,” Ilia reflexively snapped. She stopped, hating herself a little bit when both Ruby and the blonde boy turned to look at her, and she added, “Anyways, yeah, blonde boy, so where is she?”

They went to the courtyards to find no one there before Ruby remembered something about an office, checked her Scroll, and led them in the direction of one of the administrative buildings. They took an elevator up to the top floor. As the elevator doors slid open, the first thing Ilia saw was a placard with the logo of the SDC haphazardly hanging from the wall. Then the people rushing around carrying paperwork, moving chairs, moving desks, setting up unplugged CCT terminals. Seeing the letters ‘SDC’ gave Ilia the normal slew of conflicting feelings. Ruby didn’t seem to mind the chaotic atmosphere. 

Weiss was in a corner of the room arguing with a bunch of businessmen in suits. 

“I don’t care what you think I might’ve said before! This is unacceptable!”

“But Miss Schnee, we can’t just raise the wages by that much, the overtime costs are already through the roof—”

“That’s right, and what we’re paying now now is completely legitimate, completely within the law—”

“Our profit margin—”

“ _—_ is already ridiculously high as it is,” Weiss snarled. “The SDC is a monopoly, our Dust prices can’t get jacked up any higher, all the kingdoms’ militaries and academies contract with us. The overtime costs and wage costs aren’t what’s through the roof at all.”

“It’s not that simple, Miss Schnee. Think about it. Investors want to see forward-looking guidance and growth in earnings, not a contraction—”

“You forget, aren’t I an ‘investor’? Need I remind you that even now after the company has gone public, the Schnee estate remains by and far the largest stakeholder in the SDC? And you know what I, as an investor, want? For you to raise every Mantle worker’s wages by at least fifteen percent. Effective immediately.”

“We don’t have the money—”

“Yes we do. Take the cash on hand and use it to finance it. I’ve seen the balance sheets. There’s no reason we should be sitting on that much Lien.”

“That money is earmarked for paying down long-term and short-term debt, and the new share buyback program—”

“Cut the share buyback program then.”

“Miss Schnee, you—”

“Cut it! Your job isn’t to question my decisions, your job is to _get them done.”_

The businessmen scattered. Ruby and Ilia approached Weiss, who sat down at her desk and scowled darkly at the sheaf of papers she started leafing through. Penny, who had been peacefully folding origami at the opposite end of the desk with pieces of similar papers all this time, noticed the two of them.

“Hello, friends!” Penny said.

“Hi Penny!” Ruby grinned. “You have to teach me how to do that!”

Of course Ilia should have expected Ruby and Penny to know each other by now and to get along splendidly. They chattered away as Weiss’s Scroll rang and still scowling, she picked up. 

“Mr. Smith, I already told you, we will not be—Oh. Yes. My apologies, Miss Thyme. Yes. That can definitely be arranged. I still need to properly thank the two of you some time. Are you still in Vale?”

Weiss nodded, shifting the Scroll to her other hand, and picked up a pen. She started writing things down, seemingly completely absorbed in the conversation. Ilia put her hands in her pockets and wandered away. She found the coffee machine hiding behind a couple of desks and a stack of paper cups.

Weiss’s call ended just as Ilia set the cup of coffee in front of her. Weiss looked up at her, the surprise in her expression obvious. It was almost immediate, the way her demeanor changed. All cold and business-like to this appraising, hesitant sort of expression.

“You’re trying to do too much at once,” Ilia said. “You’re setting yourself up to burn out. Slow down.”

“I just feel like it’s my responsibility,” Weiss said, after a pause. “To try to fix things.”

“It’s not your responsibility to do anything,” Ilia said. “You’re not really _her._ This company and a lot of things aren’t actually your business.”

Weiss tensed. “...Are you telling me to stay out of it?”

“No. I don’t know. But maybe you should take a moment to step back and reevaluate.”

Weiss reached for the cup of coffee and took a cautious sip.

“It’s good,” Weiss offered.

“Sure thing,” Ilia said. She paused. “Boss.”

The air was still uncomfortable. Weiss wouldn’t look her in the eye. Weiss started shuffling through papers again and Ilia retreated a couple of steps, pretending to be interested in the color of the wallpaper.

“Soooooo…” Ruby broke the silence and bounded over. “Weiss!”

“Ruby,” Weiss greeted, and there was her second demeanor-shift, an almost entire softening to everything about her expression. “Wait. Shouldn’t you be in class right now?”

“It’s Friday!”

“Oh, right. Your classes end early…”

Ruby’s fidgeting wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding Myrtenaster behind her back. She opened her mouth to speak, then Weiss’s Scroll chimed again. Weiss looked at it and sighed, standing up.

“I’d love to talk, but I forgot, I have a meeting with the Headmaster and the General I have to get to.”

“Aw, come on, you can ditch it. Don’t you guys meet like every day?”

“It’s important, I’m afraid.”

“Top secret stuff?”

“SDC internal affairs and how they relate to Cinder Fall. We’re trying to put together some kind of paper trail from the other Weiss’s past behaviors and transactions, maybe it’ll help them figure out where Cinder is lying low...”

“Oh yeah then, that’s definitely super important,” Ruby said. “That’s too bad. I won’t bother you. We can talk later!”

Penny said, suddenly, “Miss Schnee. Why don’t I take care of the meeting? You can ask the Headmaster for permission for me to attend in your stead.”

“Huh?” Weiss said. She frowned, and absentmindedly, began rifling through her papers again. “I’m not sure he would allow that, unfortunately.”

“You’ve been working for almost the whole day, and the day before this one, too, and the day before that one!” Penny said. “Ask him! I’m sure he’ll understand. You can transfer me the necessary files. If the Headmaster says no, you can at least postpone the meeting to some other time.”

“But why would I want to postpone the meeting?”

“Because you’ll be busy trying out your new weapon!”

“My… what?”

“Penny!” Ruby exclaimed. “Geez!”

Seeing that the jig was up, Ruby went ahead and presented Myrtenaster to Weiss. Weiss stared at the rapier for a few seconds, speechless, as if unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

“How…?”

“I made it!” Ruby said. “It’s just a prototype, and there are tons of imperfections, but I thought, maybe you’d like to give it a shot, tell me what you don’t like, and I can make it better!”

“You didn’t have to do this for me. I don’t know what to say,” Weiss said. Her voice was tight. Then, Weiss smiled. “Somehow, you always know how to make me feel better. Thank you.”

Ruby flushed and rubbed the back of her neck. Ilia, standing at the side feeling like little more than a bystander, felt a sharp stab low in her gut. What the fuck. That had been _jealousy._ It was a completely irrational feeling, she knew, but she couldn’t help it. She hardly remembered the last time she had seen Weiss ever smile, much less at her, and that was still Weiss’s face...

Great. Now on top of everything else she was feeling she also had to deal with this nonsense. Weiss, staring at Ruby like Ruby was her whole world. Something something _partners_ , Ilia vaguely recalled. And you know what they all said about Huntsmen and their partners.

“Penny, I’ll go with you,” Ilia said. To Ruby and Weiss, she said, “You two have fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I forget if I'm writing a love triangle or not lol


	17. Chapter 17

Weiss did not have a lot of free time anymore. Between ironing out the last details of her freedom, helping Ozpin and Ironwood (fruitlessly) try to catch Cinder, and managing the SDC, sometimes, she didn’t even have time to eat. It was probably better that she was busy. It kept her mind off of things, like the burgeoning homesickness that was getting worse and worse.

She got about five hours of sleep every night. It wasn’t bad, per say, certainly more than the numbers she had been getting in the days leading up to her trial, although it left her feeling tired and irritable. She felt bad for the SDC office workers who were just trying to do their jobs, as they were often the ones caught on the receiving end of her tongue-lashings. Albeit slowly, the SDC was making sure progress in implementing new and progressive policies under her direction.

The only times she felt like she really had a moment to relax was in the evenings, after sundown, when she would go onto the training field and mess around with Ruby. Times like these, she could almost pretend that nothing had changed and everything was where they ought to have been. Myrtenaster 2.0, as Weiss had lovingly dubbed the weapon, had quickly grown on her, especially after Ruby had ironed out the various kinks at her suggestion.

Weiss lost nine out of ten times they sparred, which wasn’t surprising. She had gotten rusty, and, compared to the rest of her team (and this was a fact that she had made peace with at Beacon after lots of internal turmoil), she was normally better playing support.

After a particularly bad tumble, Ruby pulled Weiss to her feet, grinning. “You nearly got me there,” Ruby said. “You’re fast!”

“But you’re so much faster,” Weiss grumbled. “It’s almost unfair.”

“It’s my Semblance, you can’t blame me,” Ruby said.

“I can blame you for plenty of things,” Weiss said. She dusted herself off, checked her weapon, and said, “I love you.”

The words slipped out of Weiss’s mouth, just like that, completely without her meaning it at all. It took only a split second for Weiss to realize what she had said. Ruby, the grin freezing to her face, turned bright red and said, “Bwuh?”

Weiss wanted to fall down and preferably impale herself on Myrtenaster 2.0 along the way. “Please forget I just said that,” she said, completely mortified. “Please.”

“Uhh,” Ruby said. “I mean, I like you a lot, Weiss, I think you’re, um, you’re great, really awesome, attractive even, but uhhh, we haven’t known each other for a long time really, and uh, and I think it’s a bit early…”

“I didn’t mean it,” Weiss begged. “I mean, I did mean it, but not the way you’re thinking about it.” Then her brain backed up. “Wait. You think I’m attractive?”

She could feel her face heating up, too. Ruby was practically a tomato. 

“Jaune met you only recently and he likes you,” Ruby squeaked. “So it’s, um, it’s just an objectively true statement! That’s all I meant.”

“Right, of course,” Weiss nodded. “Right right right…”

There was an awkward silence. Weiss no longer wanted to impale herself on Myrtenaster 2.0 but she still did want to crawl into a hole and curl up there. Her brain had to just go and fritz out on her. First, it was true, she and the other Ruby hadn’t known each other for that long. They were friends, but it didn’t feel like they had gotten past the stage where heartwarming confessions were the norm, and now it was entirely possible that she had scared the other Ruby off with her weirdness especially with in consideration of all the lingering unresolved tension. Second, Weiss wasn’t even remotely ready to say anything definitive to her Ruby about… about anything, really. Any progress and courage she may have been able to work herself up to during the Vytal Festival had been thoroughly blown to bits by the Fall of Beacon and then this body swap misfortune, and she wasn’t even sure if the feelings were real and not just a passing infatuation that would fade given more time.

The conclusion: she must have been more homesick than she thought. Maybe the homesickness and the lack of sleep were cooking her brain. It would have been understandable if she had just gotten out of a life or death situation and that was why she had said those words spur of the moment but that had not been the case. Weiss grimaced. She wished she could say it made no sense that she could confuse one Ruby with another. Sometimes, she really could fool herself into thinking they were one and the same… At some point, without realizing it, she had begun to drop the ‘other’ title.

“I thought maybe you and Ilia…?” Ruby started.

“What? No. Ilia and I? That’s ridiculous.” Weiss tried to imagine it. It didn’t quite work. “I barely know her any longer than I do you. We’re just…” Friends? Coworkers? Strangers? She remembered the conversation on the rooftop of the penthouse which, perhaps contradictorily, already felt like years ago. It felt like they had been closer to understanding each other then they were now. “It’s complicated.”

“Oh, okay,” Ruby said. She paused. “Okay. Well, sometimes it seems like she’s...” Ruby stopped. “Never mind. It’s not my place to say.”

“Please, really, just forget I said anything, too,” Weiss said. “I don’t want things to be even weirder than they already are because of this.”

Ruby still seemed conflicted. She opened her mouth to say more, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sounds of footsteps. The two of them looked over to see Yang’s approaching form.

Weiss’s first reaction was to say something like _I missed you so much._ It had been so long since she had spoken to Yang in person. But after the _I love you_ she had just dropped, she had a tighter rein on her tongue. Besides, this Yang didn’t look particularly pleased.

Ruby tensed besides Weiss.

“We’re supposed to be practicing with JNPR today, remember?” Yang said without any preamble. Her eyes were fixed solely on Ruby. “You agreed with Jaune?”

Sure enough, a little ways behind Yang, there were the figures of JNPR loitering alongside a Blake who seemed to be pretending to be uninterested in the conversation. Unlike Yang, however, she kept looking over Ruby to glance at Weiss. Blake wasn’t a very good actress.

“I’m sorry, it just slipped my mind,” Ruby said. “I won’t do it again next time.”

“Next time? Like it slipped your mind all the other times before this one?” Yang scoffed. “I thought we were supposed to be a team but instead all you’ve been doing lately is ditch us to hang around _her.”_

“That’s not true,” Ruby said, testily. “We still go to class together, just yesterday Professor Goodwitch praised us for our new team attack—”

“Any other time outside of what’s absolutely necessary, you just take off!” Yang snapped. “Who cares about our new team attack when we’ll never even use it when our team leader is always out chumping with Weiss fucking Schnee! Some team leader you are.”

“I’m not—That’s—You’re always picking fights with me!” Ruby snapped back. “Any time I try to say anything, you just undermine me. What else am I supposed to do? What else can I do?”

“Talk to us? Communicate? But you’re too stubborn that you don’t see that it’s doing you no good to be like this!”

Ruby let out an exasperated noise. “She’s not a ‘bad influence’, she’s a good person which you would realize if—”

“She worked with _terrorists,_ I think you’re the one who needs to come to some kind of realization—”

“Blake already explained the situation!”

“Like that’s not just a load of—”

“It’s not, Weiss can prove it—”

“Then what about that chameleon girl who actually _is_ an ex-terrorist, what’s your excuse for her—”

Weiss had never seen Yang and Ruby fight like this before. In her mind they were always the cheery members of team RWBY, the spirit of the team in a sense, and moreover it was jarring to see such vitriol being directed at each other because of her. It made her feel guilty. Ruby and Yang were sisters. They were supposed to be close. 

“I just want to stop you from making a horrible mistake, Ruby!” Yang said.

At that, Weiss steeled herself and entered the conversation. She said, “Then stop being hypocritical.”

Yang’s eyes flashed red as she finally looked over at Weiss. “We’re not talking to you, Schnee,” she growled.

“But you’re talking about me, so I think I deserve a say in this,” Weiss stood her ground. “If you’re picking fights constantly, how do you expect Ruby to be able to open up a proper dialogue with you? She’s already apologized about forgetting the appointment with JNPR but have you apologized to her for being hostile? And I don’t understand why you would have a problem with Ilia. I get why you don’t like me, even if you don’t really know me, but Ilia’s not remotely a bad person. Like I said, you’re being hypocritical. If your only grounds for disliking her is that she’s ex-White Fang, which, to be honest is surely a private detail you shouldn’t be able to know, then how do you reconcile that with the fact that—”

At that, Blake abruptly came into the conversation, and said, “You all need to calm down. This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“I can make my own decisions,” Ruby said, angrily. “I’m not just some dumb kid, Yang.”

There was a moment of silence where they all just stood there. Team RWBY, reunited, Weiss thought, and felt a terrible sadness. What had been going on back in her world the last she had known of it again? Blake, disappeared. Yang, depressed. Thinking of her Ruby made the sadness deepen even more. Weiss had no idea what was going on with her Ruby, except that she was no longer with the other Weiss.

At length, Weiss sighed. Then, she looked at Blake and Yang.

“So,” Weiss said. “What more do you want me to do… to _prove_ myself to you?”

Blake’s bow twitched. Her expression was uncertain. “I don’t know,” she said. “There’s just a lot to think about. If it’s all true.”

“You can’t,” Yang said in a clipped voice.

“Why not?”

“Even if somehow it wasn’t you who did all those things, and I’m not saying I believe a single ounce of that BS,” Yang said, “it was still another version of you who did. That already tells me enough, that you’re the kind of person who could have done them, what you’re capable of. The only reason Blake is being nice to you is because of what you know about her.”

It took a moment for the realization to sink in. _What I know about her._ “Wait,” Weiss said, incredulously. “Do you think I’m somehow blackmailing Blake over the fact that she’s…? I would never do something like that! Blake!”

She turned to Blake. Blake’s expression grew uncomfortable. “I wish you didn’t know when it’s obvious that you do,” she admitted, and that was like a punch straight to Weiss’s gut. “You’re Weiss Schnee.”

Weiss wanted to protest. She wanted to say something like, _The reason I know you’re a Faunus and ex-White Fang is because the Blake in my world trusted me enough to tell me and we were good friends._ But Blake hadn’t trusted her with those details at all. It was entirely probable that Blake would have never told her if she hadn’t accidentally let it slip during the heat of an argument. And who was it that had provoked the argument in the first place?

What was Weiss supposed to say now?

“She said she won’t, so she won’t,” Ruby said, firmly. 

“I can’t be sure of that,” Blake said. Her eyes flickered to meet Weiss’s stricken expression, almost guiltily. “It’s not your place to determine whether or not we trust her, too.”

“Um, guys?” Jaune said from a bit of distance away. “Uh, do you want to reschedule for some other time? It’s okay, it seems like you have some things to uh, hash out.”

“No, stay, and come over here,” Yang said, suddenly. “We’re settling this argument once and for all. Come on, let’s hear it, what do the four of you think of the situation?”

JNPR exchanged glances with one another. They trudged over.

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha was the first to speak, politely. “I’m not sure I follow what’s happening?”

“We’re explaining to Ruby how stupid she’s being by making best friends with _Weiss Schnee_ ,” Yang said.

JNPR exchanged glances again. “Uh,” Jaune said. “Well. I mean. Elephant in the room. She’s Weiss Schnee, right? But uh, she seems okay. In my opinion.”

“She’s shorter than I thought,” Nora said, scrutinizing Weiss up and down. Then, she added, thoughtfully, “For a psychopath. Is she giving you guys trouble? Do I need to break someone’s legs?”

Pyrrha smiled uncomfortably and didn’t say anything. Ren didn’t say anything either but he was staring at Weiss with a puzzled expression. While this had been going on, there was an odd numbness which had started to spread in Weiss’s chest.

 _Maybe I should just go,_ the thought came to her mind. _I don’t feel so good._ Weiss shook her head, trying to clear it. Why was everything getting woozy, too, all of a sudden?

Ruby scowled and opened her mouth although Blake beat her to the punch. That was definitely guilt in Blake’s expression, Weiss noted. Strange. Was she hiding something? “Yang, maybe we should keep this to just between us,” Blake said.

“All we need from these guys is a hard ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” Yang bargained. “Alright guys. Would you trust her?”

“This isn’t going to change my mind either way,” Ruby crossed her arms. “They don’t know the full situation.”

“Fine. Then we tell it to them, and then we hear what they have to say.”

“The Headmaster said we shouldn’t,” Blake said. She said, “You know that I wasn't even supposed to have told you.”

“But why shouldn’t we?” Yang challenged. “In order to cover her ass? Why does it matter in the first place what the Headmaster says? You agreed with me, Ozpin can be wrong. If she really is innocent, doesn’t the world deserve to know the truth?”

“Wow, you really are an insufferable bitch, Yang Xiao Long,” Weiss said.

Like before, the words just fell out of her mouth like that. Except this time, Weiss was one hundred percent sure that she didn’t mean to say them. In no way shape or form had the words even occurred to her. But they had come out of her anyways.

Everyone was looking at her now. Despite Weiss’s insult, Yang’s eyes did not turn red with anger. Instead, her eyes went wide with shock. The odd numbness was doing something strange in Weiss’s chest. It had reached Weiss’s lungs and now started crawling rapidly upwards. Weiss felt the back of her throat clog up with a cloying, coppery taste. Almost sweet.

There was blood, she suddenly realized, gushing uncontrollably out of her nose. She touched her face and lifted her hand away and saw in amazement that it was completely covered in blood like out of a horror movie. She took a step back. Her eyes started to prickle like they had when she had felt the inexplicable urge to cry some time ago with Penny, on a day when it had snowed, except this time she possessed an absurd certainty that if any kind of liquid was going to come out of her eyes it was going to be even more blood.

“Oh my god,” Ruby said. Her voice was high and tight with anxiety. The atmosphere had suddenly and completely shifted.

“I’m okay, don’t worry,” Weiss said. She was not panicking. No really, she was not panicking. The wooziness had gotten worse but she felt totally calm for some reason. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. It doesn’t hurt or anything.”

Had she been poisoned? Eaten something bad? Weiss didn’t think she had. She checked herself over. There were no wounds on her body. There was no pain, just that odd numbness. Weiss put Myrtenaster 2.0 away because it would have been a shame to stain the beautiful weapon with more of her blood. She tried to wipe at her nose quite unsuccessfully until Pyrrha sprang to the rescue with a handkerchief. 

“I think you need immediate medical attention,” Pyrrha said.

“Well, we can agree to disagree on that,” Weiss said, her words muffled through the handkerchief, and then, without any warning, without any kind of prompting, there was the crinkling sound of her Aura breaking. Weiss’s knees crumpled and she would have face-planted straight into the ground (perhaps actually impaling herself on her rapier in the process) if Pyrrha hadn’t caught her.

“Oh, shit!”

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

 _“_ Weiss!”

“S’okay,” Weiss slurred, trying to push herself up. “Really. Not enough sleep. Homesickness.”

She tried to say more but the blood was leaking out of her mouth now. It felt like she was drooling and that was a new level of mortifying. Then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she blacked out.

++

“You are very very annoying and I dislike you a lot,” Weiss said.

“I have my dad and Professor Goodwitch on speed dial,” Yang threatened. “You are going to see a professional so help me.”

“Yang Xiao Long,” Weiss said. “Have I mentioned how much I dislike you? Have I mentioned that you’re an absolutely insufferable bitch?”

“Weiss, I’m not kidding around this time,” Yang warned. “This place is a mess. You’re a mess. There’s something apparently wrong with your _soul_. This is the last day. You are leaving or I’m dragging you out of here whether you like it or not.”

Weiss groaned. She hated the raw, unfiltered emotion on Yang’s face coupled with the uncompromising edge to Yang’s voice. “You’re worse than Neopolitan,” she complained, “and she actually tried to kill me.”

“All I’ve been doing is trying to help you. Can’t you see that?”

“Ugh. I’m going to take a nap and I’m not going to wake up from it until you’ve disappeared from my life.”

They had been at a stalemate for some time now and Weiss was content with it remaining a stalemate. It turned out that Yang Xiao Long had not been joking about dragging her out of the apartment because the next morning, that’s what Yang promptly did. It also turned out that she had not been lying about having Taiyang and Glynda Goodwitch on speed-dial because Weiss and Yang had just barely started into their daily argument (“I’m here for you.” “I don’t care.” “Why are you being so stubborn?” “I regret telling you about anything.”) when the two adults showed up.

Standing on the sidewalk in a t-shirt and shorts, hair a mess, Weiss calculated her odds of making a break for it. Whatever. She decided to give it a try. Yang yelled after her in frustration as Goodwitch whipped out her riding crop and grabbed Weiss with her telekinetic Semblance. Another wave of the crop and Weiss found herself floating back down the street to stop in front of Ozpin’s frowning lieutenant. 

“Miss Schnee,” Goodwitch said, at length.

“I’ve hit rock bottom, I know,” Weiss said. “But if you could all just let me be at rock bottom _in peace,_ is that so much to fucking ask? Don’t you have a school you should be rebuilding? Grimm to kill?”

Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed. Yang hurriedly said, “She’s sick and needs help, she’s not thinking properly.”

“Oh, kid,” Taiyang said, sympathetically, his hands on his hips. “What happened to you?”

“You make it sound like I’m a nutcase but there’s an obvious difference,” Weiss rolled her eyes. “And the difference is that I just don’t give any fucks about you nor you nor you.”

Four hours later, Weiss found herself being dragged off an airship. Her intrepid, wayward journey had come to its end. She was back in Patch. The entire time being dragged back to the Xiao Long household, she prayed to the powers that be that Ruby Rose was Not There. Weiss was not religious and knew the Gods had fucked off of Remnant some time ago and that they were kind of dicks (this was some of the information she had learned from Salem, in summary), but she prayed anyways. And it turned out luckily enough that Ruby Rose was Not There. Halle-fucking-lujah. God save the kings.

She took a shower and put on some new clothes or more accurately Yang Xiao Long’s old hand me downs, carefully avoiding looking into the mirror as she did so, and went to the living room. It was like an intervention, they were all sitting there, looking at her, and what the hell who was this portly mustached guy and this glasses guy with the thermos and why were they there, too?

“I can’t believe you snitched, Yang Xiao Long,” is what Weiss said, finally. “You have absolutely no filter. I told you what I told you in full confidence.”

“Stop trying to guilt-trip me,” Yang shot back. “I’m trying to help you. I never promised you I would keep your secret and it’s not a secret you should be keeping in the first place.”

“Oh, sure, I bet our pal Goodwitch here knows _all_ about keeping secrets,” Weiss said. “Got anything to say to that, Glynda?”

Glynda Goodwitch pushed up her glasses and said, in a steely voice, “We are gathered here today to talk about _you_ , Miss Schnee, and your problem and how we can help you fix it.”

“A problem with your _soul,_ ” the glasses guy added. “How very fascinating. Just from what little I have observed of this brief very brief interaction, I can already tell you’ve changed tremendously!”

“When did this happen?” the portly man asked. His voice was far more serious and concerned. “How did this happen to you? I’ve never heard of anything like it. A person _losing_ their Aura and Semblance?”

Weiss cleared her throat. “A brick fell from a high place and hit my head,” she said. “Then on the way to the hospital the ambulance got into a car accident. It turns out that Roman Torchwick’s dead ghost had been robbing Vale Central Bank close by and his getaway car ended up smashing into the ambulance on the account of ghosts not having any hands to properly steer cars. He kidnapped me and we eloped for a while before his maybe girlfriend maybe daughter-figure got jealous and tried to murder me and dumped me in that abandoned apartment where Yang kicked down my door and disgustingly inserted herself into my life without my permission.”

Pause. A silence sank into the room. Weiss realized they were all taking her words at face-value.

“I’m lying, holy fuck,” Weiss said, and she snickered. Wow. That felt good. One of her better stories, yet. “You should see the looks on your faces.”

“It’s not funny, you know,” Yang said. 

“If you, Yang Xiao Long, are telling me I can’t joke about something,” Weiss said, “then that means I have to actually try to process what happened to me. And that’s not happening.”

That was as much an admission of vulnerability that she was capable of. She took a slow, smooth breath and felt calm. She looked at every single person in the room, silently daring them to challenge her statement.

Taiyang Xiao Long, from his position leaning in the corner of the room, said, “I’m finding it a little bit difficult to grapple with the terminology here,” he said. “When you say you lost your Semblance and Aura, do you mean that they’re gone? Or that you can’t access them? Because if it’s the latter situation—”

“Like it’s been destroyed,” Weiss said. “Like I’m a Grimm.”

“You’re not a Grimm,” Yang said instantly.

“It’s just a metaphor, calm down,” Weiss snapped.

“No, I just don’t understand—” Yang stood up. “No, this really isn’t funny at all! This is awful! You’re—You’re so different—You shouldn’t just say things like—”

“I don’t need your pity,” Weiss said, flatly. She knew she was a bad person. Come on. Nothing could justify the kind of person she was.

“Miss Schnee,” Goodwitch said. “Will you please acknowledge the fact that we are all here to _help_ you?”

Weiss sneered. “Glynda Goodwitch, I bet you have some secret, hidden agenda that no one else—”

“Okay, okay, wait a second here,” Taiyang said, holding up his hands. He turned to Weiss. “How can you be so sure what’s happened to you is that your Aura and Semblance have been destroyed? I think it could help us understand if we had specifics of what happened to you.”

Weiss could appreciate that he was at least trying to be pragmatic. Taiyang Xiao Long was the kind of person she could attempt to appreciate. “You’ll just have to take my word for it,” she said.

“If it’s the former situation, where you’re unable to access them,” Taiyang said, “which happens, sometimes, when a Huntsman undergoes a traumatic experience connected to their Aura or Semblance, it’s possible to revitalize the connection. I can re-unlock your Aura for you.”

“I already told you that’s not what happened to me,” Weiss said. 

“Then maybe I can recreate your Aura for you,” Taiyang said.

“You’re going to recreate my disappeared _soul_?” she raised an eyebrow.

“It’s worth a try.”

Weiss let him put his hand on her shoulder, figuring it wasn’t worth the effort to contest it, whatever this fixation of Taiyang’s was. Everyone in the room was watching with bated breath. He recited the big speech about paragons and virtue. It was different from the speech Ilia had used, Weiss noted. Oddly, she did feel some kind of feeling in her stomach, almost like a tugging sensation...

Taiyang pulled away and stopped glowing. “Well?” he said.

Weiss frowned. She was one hundred percent sure that should have done nothing for her. And yet she felt… This odd feeling. Where was it coming from? It was like there was a long coil of rope in her gut. The end of the rope was connected… somewhere, to something. 

She held out a hand, more to humor everyone else in the room than herself. She had attempted this exercise many times before, back in her world and her body, and when she had first woken up in this body. Glyph! Come! Blah blah. She tried to utilize the mental muscles that had been utterly useless for more than a year.

Her palm lit up.

She stared at it.

Slowly, under her direction, the glyph expanded.

For once, Weiss was speechless. She had nothing snarky to offer. Then, without warning, the ecstasy came. It was a little like what she imagined getting high on drugs would have felt like. The emotions slammed into her without warning, an intense load of ridiculously positive happy feeling, so powerful she staggered to the side and almost threw up right then and there. Her _Semblance,_ she marvelled, it was her Semblance! This was literally fucking impossible!

Yang was saying something but Weiss was ignoring her. She was ignoring everyone in the room and everything in pure disbelief except for that thin, lazy-looking glyph in her hand. She told it to get bigger.

It got bigger.

Her heart was thumping in her chest like she had just run a marathon. She was so happy. She couldn’t believe it. It was impossible. She couldn’t feel happiness anymore, she was sure of it, but this _feeling,_ she was _feeling—_

She told the glyph to get bigger. It got bigger. Then it was encompassing the whole room.

Do something, she ordered, giddily, do something, do anything, and the glyph turned a brilliant white, a giant hand shot out of it and slammed onto the floor of the Xiao Long living room, one long armored arm extracted itself, then another, a helmeted head, a torso, the legs, and it was stepping out, this giant, white glowing _knight,_ out of _her_ glyph _—_

The knight smashed a hole into the side of the living room with a single swing of its sword. She whooped. Someone was yelling, shouting at her, but she was ignoring them, a huge grin growing on her face. The knight was incredibly big and incredibly powerful and it was following her every command. The knight picked her up, cradling her in its giant hands, and deposited her on its shoulder.

Then it ran out of the house. Its footsteps left huge imprints in the snow. They headed for the forest. 

Get bigger! she told it. It got bigger. It was above the treeline now, towering. Holy _fuck_! she laughed. Smash those trees—

It smashed them, it smashed them alright, well and good—

This was intoxicating. Wow! She could ride this high _forever_.

If she had had this power when Cinder Fall had beaten her to a pulp, maybe she could have been the one beating Cinder Fall to a pulp. The idea of a giant glowing foot, crushing Cinder Fall under its heel, made Weiss laugh. 

Then she felt tears burning in her eyes, and she stopped laughing.

Oh.

She… She was… She was such an awful person, wasn’t she? Ah. What was she doing here, what had she done, she was such an awful person, Weiss thought of Ilia and it was too much, she seized at the cold place and rattled it c’mon, do something, but it wasn’t quite working as effectively as it once had. It was slow, sluggish, creeping, buried somewhere under all this feeling that wouldn’t stop coming to her.

She told the knight to get even bigger. It got bigger. Get as big as you possibly can. It grew and it grew and it grew. It kept growing. It got to the point that she was starting to feel nervous at how big it was, the height. It felt like she could see the entire island of Patch, like she could see the mainland where Vale was from here.

She told it to get smaller. It started to shrink, slowly. It was good that she had ordered it to do this, because somewhere at the height of trees, as abruptly as the knight had appeared before her, she felt something give away. Like the rope in her stomach had been stretched too tautly, to its limit, and snapped. The knight broke apart underneath her into countless pieces, dissolving into unsubstantiated light. Weiss took a rough tumble, hitting a tree branch on the way down, an almost 360 degree turn, before collapsing on impact with the ground. Then, all was silent for a long time. All the emotions faded, leaving only the familiar numbness. Everything in her body ached. Weiss curled her fingers through the cold snow. Damn it. Damn everything. She had just done something illogically stupid... 

...That hadn’t been her Aura nor her Semblance. Weiss wasn’t so deluded as to believe that. Hers were gone. In the first place, she had never been remotely close to being able to summon anything, much less a giant glowing knight. She had never fought anything like that before in her memory.

Weiss picked herself off the ground with a resigned sigh. She touched her chest, felt her heart, which had gone back to its steady undeviating rhythm. She guessed she had about avoided the idea for as long as possible. 

She didn't know how much this changed. Everything? Was that too much of a hyperbole? Or maybe it changed nothing. How was she supposed to put her thoughts into order? Certainly, this complicated things. Unless she just pretended that what just happened hadn't happened. She could go back that peaceful, feel-nothing, do-nothing life, in some apartment in Vale, drifting through life, alone...

Who was she kidding. Weiss had described it herself. That had been like getting high, feeling happiness. She didn't know she could do happy anymore. The cold place, back in full force, whispered to her. For once she told it to shut the fuck up.

“I have to talk to the other Weiss,” she muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha I have no excuse for the late update guys, but here's the new chapter :p 
> 
> You can probably tell I was a bit sleep-deprived when I wrote this... I think I may have slightly derailed from my outline and my plans for the characters

**Author's Note:**

> Haha I have no excuse for the late update guys, but here's the new chapter :p 
> 
> You can probably tell I was a bit sleep-deprived when I wrote this... It was fun, though, even if I (slightly) derailed my outline and my plans for the characters.


End file.
